– Metascore: 90

– Release date: July 5, 2005

“Illinois” is a follow-up to Sufjan Stevens’s album “Michigan,” part of his 50-state project that never materialized in full. Topics of the odes to the Midwestern state range from homegrown poet Carl Sandburg to serial killer John Wayne Gacy Jr. The singer-songwriter plays 25 instruments on the album.

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