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Artwork:

cover images (l-r): original cd cover with superman, final cd cover, lp cover

Tracklist:

1. Concerning The UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois
2. The Black Hawk War, Or, How To Demolish An Entire Civilization And Still Feel Good About Yourself In The Morning, Or, We Apologize For The Inconvenience But You’re Going To Have To Leave Now, Or, “I Have Fought The Big Knives And Will Continue To Fight Them Until They Are Off Our Lands!”
3. Come On! Feel The Illinoise!
   -Part I: The World’s Columbian Exposition
   -Part II: Carl Sandburg Visits Me In A Dream
4. John Wayne Gacy, Jr.
5. Jacksonville
6. A Short Reprise For Mary Todd, Who Went Insane, But For Very Good Reasons
7. Decatur, Or, Round Of Applause For Your Stepmother!
8. One Last “Whoo-hoo!” For The Pullman
9. Chicago
10. Casimir Pulaski Day
11. To The Workers Of The Rockford River Valley Region, I Have An Idea Concerning Your Predicament, And It Involves Shoe String, A Lavender Garland, And Twelve Strong Women
12. The Man Of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts
13. Prairie Fire That Wanders About
14. A Conjunction Of Drones Simulating The Way In Which Sufjan Stevens Has An Existential Crisis In The Great Godfrey Maze
15. The Predatory Wasp Of The Palisades Is Out To Get Us!
16. They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From The Dead!! Ahhhhh!
17. Let’s Hear That String Part Again, Because I Don’t Think They Heard It All The Way Out In Bushnell
18. In This Temple, As In The Hearts Of Man, For Whom He Saved The Earth
19. The Seer’s Tower
20. The Tallest Man, The Broadest Shoulders
    -Part I: The Great Frontier
    -Part II: Come To Me Only With Playthings Now
21. Riffs And Variations On A Single Note For Jelly Roll, Earl Hines, Louis Armstrong, Baby Dodds, And The King Of Swing, To Name A Few
22. Out Of Egypt, Into The Great Laugh Of Mankind, And I Shake The Dirt From My Sandals As I Run
23. Chicago (To String Remix by JonGalloway) *
24. The Avalanche **

Details:

Label: Asthmatic Kitty (North America), Rough Trade (Europe)
Release Date: July 5, 2005 (North America), July 4, 2005 (Europe), November 22, 2005 (LP)
Catalog # AKR014 (North America), RTRADCD250 (Europe)
Format: CD, LP, digital download
Availability: CD and LP are available at select stores and directly from Asthmatic Kitty and Rough Trade, digital download available at iTunes or eMusic.

Additional notes:

• * Chicago (To String Remix by JonGalloway) is available exclusively at iTunes.
• ** The Avalanche is available at iTunes as well as the Illinois LP, An Album Club Exclusive and The Avalanche.
• A demo version of “Casimir Pulaski Day” is available for download at Asthmatic Kitty’s site.
• Sufjan Stevens on recording Illinois.
• Contributors, musical benefactors, credits, etc.
• Original art by Divya Srinivasan.
• See also this news item for additional details about the Illinois artwork.

Reviews on this site:

• Paste – Issue 20 – February/March 2006
• Seventeen – Volume 64, Number 12 – December 2005
• Sound & Vision – October 2005
• World – Volume 20, Number 36 – September 17, 2005
• Chord – Issue 33 – August/September 2005
• Uncut – August 2005
• Blender – August 2005
• Q – August 2005
• Mojo – August 2005 (review)
• Rolling Stone – Issue 979 – July 28, 2005
• Chicago Reader – July 22, 2005
• New York Times – July 10, 2005
• NME – July 02, 2005
• Word – July 2005
• Spin – Volume 21, Number 7 – July 2005
• Under The Radar – Issue 10 – Summer 2005 (review)
• Filter – Issue 16 – Summer 2005 (review)

Reviews on other sites:

• 34th Street Magazine
• All Music Guide
• Almost Cool
• Associated Press
• Austin Chronicle
• Burnside Writers Collective
• Buzzgrinder
• Christianity Today
• City Pages
• CMJ
• Cokemachineglow
• Courier-Journal
• Delusions of Adequacy
• Drowned In Sound
• Dusted
• Entertainment Weekly
• Fake Jazz
• Flak
• Harp
• Indieworkshop
• Junkmedia
• Kevchino – Indie Music Reviews
• LA Weekly
• Lost At Sea
• Metro Pulse Online
• New Times Broward-Palm Beach
• New York
• New Zealand Herald
• Newcity Chicago
• No Ripcord
• Opuszine
• Paste – Issue 17
• Pitchfork
• Playlouder
• Pop Matters
• Prefix
• Relevant
• Shaking Through.net
• Slant
• Somewhere Cold
• Splendid
• Static Multimedia
• Stylus
• Sydney Morning Herald
• The Beat Surrender
• The Guardian
• The Onion A.V. Club
• Tiny Mix Tapes
• Village Voice
• Washington Post
• Weekend America (audio review)
• Yahoo! Music – UK & Ireland

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