Sufjan Stevens released his beloved album Carrie & Lowell a decade ago. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the release, Asthmatic Kitty Records announces Carrie & Lowell (10th Anniversary Edition), out May 30th, ahead of the album’s arrival, he has shared with fans “Mystery of Love (Demo).”

The deluxe edition features an expanded double-LP album that includes seven previously unreleased bonus tracks, a 40-page art book, and a new essay by Sufjan. This edition also offers an alternative cover: a full-framed version of the original Polaroid zoomed out to reveal the photo’s caption written in a child’s handwriting—“Carrie & Lowell”—disclosing the source of the album title (it was written by Sufjan’s sister Djamilah). Designed by Sufjan, the 40-page booklet contains various collages of vintage family photos spanning four generations interfused with artwork and drawings (on themes of death, dying, grief and the state of Oregon) as well as landscape photos Sufjan took while traveling across the western U.S. over a decade ago.

The original album is preserved on one disc, while disc two contains 40 minutes of extras, including demo versions of ‘Death With Dignity’, ‘Should Have Known Better’, ‘The Only Thing’, and ‘Eugene’. Expansive outtakes of ‘Fourth of July’ and ‘Wallowa Lake Monster’ are also included, both featuring a more cinematic mood. The final gem is the original demo of ‘Mystery of Love’ taken from the original Carrie & Lowell album sessions but later re-worked and re-recorded for Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name. The demo version here features solo guitar and voice with slightly altered lyrics.

Carrie & Lowell was the result of an immensely difficult process in which Sufjan’s songwriting – usually a salve – failed him in the wake of his mother’s death. He was eventually led out of a cycle of creative doubt with a rare handover of production duties to Thomas Bartlett. In wrestling with darkness and devastation, life and death, Sufjan was eventually able to begin making sense of the beauty and ugliness of love.

Sufjan Stevens
Carrie & Lowell (10th Anniversary Edition)
Tracklist

Disc 1:

1. Death with Dignity
2. Should Have Known Better
3. All of Me Wants All of You
4. Drawn To the Blood
5. Eugene
6. Fourth of July
7. The Only Thing
8. Carrie & Lowell
9. John My Beloved
10. No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross
11. Blue Bucket of Gold

Disc 2:

1. Death with Dignity (Demo)
2. Should Have Known Better (Demo)
3. Eugene (Demo)
4. The Only Thing (Demo)
5. Mystery Of Love (Demo)
6. Wallowa Lake Monster (Version 2)
7. Fourth of July (Version 4)

Order Carrie & Lowell 10th anniversary deluxe edition HERE