making sense of michigan

You all know that I am a big fan of Sufjan Stevens and enjoy pretty much all of his music. One album, Greetings from Michigan: The Great Lake State, has always puzzled me, though.

It starts out great and builds for a while but the end doesn't really feel like an ending. I just didn't get it ...

... until, while looking for information about a particular song, I looked at the album's page on Wikipedia. I had been deceived! Or, rather, I had deceived myself!

I bought the album off of iTunes where the last six tracks are labeled as "bonus tracks." However, in my music on my computer, they're all just part of the whole thing with no distinguishing labels.

The album makes so much more sense to me now! It ends on a high note instead of a good, but not as powerful song.