Sufjan Stevens’s decades-long career has made him the self-described “poster child of pain, loss, and loneliness.” He’s made sad music across genres from IDM to minimalism – but when the melancholy is most acute, he channels it into singer-songwriter music. Very few artists capture sadness quite like Stevens. Although his latest album, Javelin, might not wreck you as emotionally as 2015’s Carrie & Lowell, it’s still incredibly devastating and full of heartbreaking tracks

On Javelin, Stevens goes back to what he does best – slightly electronic folk music paired with poetic lyricism – and he crafts yet another masterpiece

There are, as usual, a few moments of pure pop symphony, with distant but definite echoes of Phil Spector’s reverb-laden orchestral excesses, but beyond the opening track Goodbye Evergreen which starts gentle as can be and crashes into sufjanesque splendour, the tone is gentle – with a seductive combination of feelgood joy and more soulful melancholy. In the richly illustrated 40-page album accompanying Javelin (Stevens is a master of collage and painting) there is a wonderful chronicle of the artist’s loves from the first teen glimmer until the present. He writes (beautifully) of a “distant and divine voice” and “the music of the spheres”. A Christian who never preaches, Sufjan Stevens’s lyrics and music always stay close to the spiritual

Whether accompanied by the delicate and liquid sound of the banjo or the soft tones of a nylon-string acoustic guitar, Stevens’s voice hovers on the edge of excessive emotion but never tumbles into drama queen kitsch. The song Genuflecting Ghost is almost unbearably touching: love and devotion, opening oneself to the risk of losing everything through passion – call it surrender – this is what Javelin is all about

Of all the tracks, Goodbye Evergreen is probably the most experimental on the album, but Stevens has many exciting surprises. Other highlights include Everything That Rises and My Red Little Fox. In the former, ambient synths clunk and clatter and have a bit of a dark and strange sound. The latter has an enchanting dream-like sound, making it feel like you are listening to a nursery rhyme

The emotions and imagery that Stevens conveys through his words is truly breathtaking. In Will Anybody Ever Love Me? he simultaneously soothes and depresses you with his vulnerable and gloomy lyrics about yearning for love. A Running Start is incredibly vivid and demonstrates why Stevens is a master at storytelling

The choir-like backing vocals are magnificent on this album,a nd , when combined with Stevens’ vocals, the result  sounds gorgeous and heavenly, especially on Everything That Rises

Shit Talk is one of Stevens’ best tracks to date. Painful and melancholic lyrics, haunting and cinematic instrumentation, an epic conclusion, and a career-best vocal performance by Stevens make it one of the best songs of 2023. Plus, the lines: “I will always love you/But I cannot live with you” are two of the year’s most soul-crushing and cathartic lines

Overall, Javelin is another masterpiece from Sufjan Stevens and fully deserves our Album of the Year award