The Quiet Return of Fleet Foxes and Sufjan Stevens

This week brought new albums from a pair of beloved artists who emerged a little over a decade ago as purveyors of artful indie folk: Fleet Foxes, who announced their fourth full-length Shore on Monday and released it 24 hours later, and Sufjan Stevens, whose eighth solo album The Ascension arrives today, September 25. Each has navigated listeners’ weighty expectations in their own way: Fleet Foxes by eschewing promotion and embracing the vibrant simplicity of their early songwriting, and Stevens by avoiding the character sketches and personal narratives of his past albums in favor of broader questions about the state of the world. On this episode, Pitchfork Editor Puja Patel is joined by Features Editor Ryan Dombal and News Editor Matthew Strauss for a discussion of both albums and the artists who made them.