Last week, Sufjan Stevens announced a new album called The Ascension, which will be out in September. A couple days later, we got its 12-minute-long lead single “America.” That single is being released on a physical 7″ at the end of the month, and on its B-side is another new song called “My Rajneesh,” which is not included on his upcoming album and is instead a leftover from his last proper album, 2015’s Carrie & Lowell.
Following that album’s Oregon theme, “My Rajneesh”‘s name and narrative seemingly derive from the Rajneeshee bioterrorist attack that took place in the state in 1984. “Illumination I have seen, my need, my Rajneesh,” Stevens sings throughout. “Hallucination I have seen, my need, my Rajneesh.” The song contains a musical callback to his Age Of Adz track “Vesuvius.”
Listen below.
The Ascension is out 9/25 on Ashthmatic Kitty. Pre-order it here. The “America” b/w “My Rajneesh” single is out 7/31, but the physical run is already sold out.
