Update (June 15, 2023): Our pressing of the University of Michigan/Michigan State AKR 20th Anniversary Edition of Sufjan’s Michigan sold out in minutes, and many fans were not able to secure a copy. But we have good news! We’ve secured a second pressing at Third Man Records to arrive in fall of this year.
Pre-orders will open tomorrow Friday June 16 at 10AM EST and remain open until 10PM EST, or until supplies last. This second pressing will ship Fall 2023. You can pre-order it here.
Note: this will be it for this edition (we’re only twenty once!), so this is your last opportunity to purchase this edition.
Sufjan’s third album, Michigan, turns 20 in July. As part of the celebration, we’ve partnered with Third Man Pressing in Detroit to release three special editions:
- Great Lakes Blue Edition: (SOLD OUT) On June 13th, Third Man Records released their blue splatter edition with a silk screen gatefold jacket, online and in their three physical stores (Nashville, Detroit and London).
- University of Michigan/Michigan State AKR Edition: On June 14th, we released 500 copies of this edition in the AKR store.
- 1921 Centenary Edition: On June 17th, HMV will release their edition – celebrating two birthdays – Michigan’s 20th and HMV’s 100th! HMV opened their London shop on Oxford Street 100 years ago and in honor of this have carefully curated a collection of the finest albums from the last century, including Sufjan’s Michigan. This limited edition will feature opaque red vinyl.
All vinyl pressings include alternate versions of “Romulus,” “Vito’s Ordination Song,” and exclusive tracks such as “Marching Band” and “Wolverine.”
At time of release, Brandon Stosuy reviewed Michigan for Pitchfork, writing that, “Michigan is a pop album stacked with an impressive amount of space for Stevens’ shimmering geography; at its best, too, it manages a melancholy beauty, a frost-bound tone poem about average people living out their victories and defeats with a shadowy, dignified grace.” (Twelve years later in 2015, Brandon would review Sufjan’s Carrie & Lowell for Pitchfork.)
The Montreal Mirror said Michigan was “substantial, beautiful and tremendously honest.” The weekly Bottle Breaker wrote that, “The range of instrumentation is staggering and, with the exception of a couple horn parts and some backing vocals, Stevens plays absolutely everything here himself. His arrangements are rich and warm and Stevens the engineer / producer captures the absolute best in Stevens the musician.”
Since its release, Michigan has become part of the independent and folk vernacular. Last year in 2022, Japanese Breakfast covered Romulus. “Redford (for Yia-Yia and Pappou)” inspired Questlove of The Roots to re-record the song with Sufjan for their Undun album, basing the concept character on the song title. (Sufjan would also later open the 2015/2016 Carrie & Lowell tour with “Redford.”) There are thousands of covers of the songs on Michigan, and we’ve compiled just a few of our favorites on a playlist here.
You can also watch a collection of Sufjan playing Michigan live through the years on a playlist here, including a full show of Sufjan playing in 2004 on the Michigan tour at Toronto’s Lee Palace.
Great Lakes Blue Third Man Pressing Edition
University of Michigan / Michigan State AKR Edition
1921 Centenary HMV Edition
