In this doctor's opinion, it's a fallacy that if you're feeling down the best sonic remedy is straight, empathetic miserablism. What you actually need is to be taken from your Leonard Cohen-esque squalor and up to a state of euphoric bliss, ideally in the course of one song. Very few artists are talented enough to inhabit the centre of the ultimate musical Venn diagram - one that unites head-tingling hope with soul-crushing despair. At this pallid time of year, these select few are the key to lifting yourself clear out of the January doldrums.
Last year, Bright Eyes lit up the gloom for me; this year Sufjan Stevens has done the same. After releasing his solo debut in 2000, the young Michiganian embarked on a project more ambitious than the Millennium Dome and the "Star Wars" missile defence project combined: recording an individual concept album for each of the 50 states of the union.
The second of the 50, Illinoise (available on iTunes), was released in July to some acclaim, but it was clear from the outset that this was a record for the darker months. Nobody really needs brass triumphalism, stirring melodies or elevating chorales during summer.
The album's highlight, "Chicago" - a song about love, road trips and the Windy City - fills the January void beautifully. A bombastic, choir-led chorus that practically bleeds serotonin through your speakers cannot hide Stevens's quiet awe of America in all its glory and ingloriousness: "if I was crying/in the van, with my friend/it was for freedom/from myself and from the land".
Neil Young is Stevens's spiritual predecessor, and even though Young has also said a great deal that is profound about America, the best happy/sad track of his I can recommend is full of drug-addled nonsense about "silver spaceships". It is, of course, "After the Gold Rush" (also available on iTunes) and it is no less vital than Stevens's record for blowing away those New Year cobwebs.
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