I picked up this CD after falling in love with Greetings from Michigan and found it to be a completely different, and quite interesting, recording. With a slightly more "rock" vibe than some of Sufjan's later CDs, A Sun Came! paints with a broad palate of musical textures; several of the songs can easily stand alone as mini-epics (esp. "We Are What You Say" and "A Winner Needs A Wand"). Being Sufjan's first CD, he especially deserves a lot of credit for his eclectic arrangements and instrumentation.

On a side note, I noticed an occasional pre-Mellow Gold Beck feel on some of the songs such as "Demetrius" and "Super Sexy Woman," largely due to the scratchy, atonal guitars and falsetto harmonies. Additionally, A Sun Came! also features short snippets of strange dialogue between songs and a couple noise excursions ("Rice Pudding" "Satan's Saxophones") akin to some of Beck's work before cleaning up his act. As a result, the album is a push-and-pull between astounding creative originality and somewhat derivative noise experiments. Overall, it is definatly essential listening for fans of Sufjan--and I'd also recommend fans of Beck's early work to check it out.

I recently saw Sufjan Stevens perform live in Portland. I was so thrilled to learn that his lush vocals are strong and not reliant on studio help. I had already grown quite fond of "Michigan" and "Seven Swans" and was unsure of what to expect from this first / rereleased album but my expectations were high.

The album starts out strong - the first three tracks are highly enjoyable. There is a celtic feel throughout many of the tracks which is enjoyable and ties many of the tracks together. I find the skits somewhat bothersome and rather unecessary, but I am able to look past it and enjoy the rest of the tracks.

More than half the tracks are 5 Star worthy, which makes this album essential for any fan of Sufjan.

Sufjan Steven's "A Sun Came" is an album that can truly captivate the senses. It works well as an album you can listen to in the dark with your eyes closed and your mind intensely focused on the music, for when you listen to it, you really have to listen deep to take it all in. The complexity of sound that weaves together in "A Sun Came" is rather remarkable, as long as you listen to the cd with open ears. A lot of the music may come as a shock to fans who picked up on Stevens work from "Seven Swans" or "Michigan", however I don't intend this to mean that this is an under-developed debut. Sufjan Stevens presents this album with startling originality, sometimes giving you music that soothes, and other times music that you can't help but giggle at. Although I'm not sure of Sufjan's intention, it seems to me that this album was intended to be a very experimental debut, however it's a great listen for both people just getting to know the works of Sufjan Stevens, and also people who own the more recent releases and are looking for some back-tracks.

Sufjan Stevens, a musical guiness and former member of Hope Michigan's Marzuki, takes you on a musical journey with his mind blowing, jam packed CD with over 72 minutes of music. A perfect balance between electric and acoustic insturments. Playing nearly every insturment on every track, he presents you with a musical piece of art where every layer (or sound) plays an intrical part to that specific song, no matter how loud or soft that sound happened to be. Place on top of that, Sufjan's harmonizing voice singing out his poetic lyrics. By breaking new ground by making a sound that I find unique to only himself, I can't even think of another group to relate Sufjan's Stevens music too. And that's why I love this CD.

3 1/2

Proving to be ultra ambitious ever since day one as far as album releasing was concerned, Steven's low-fi massive debut will be a treat for any fan, but for first timers should be avoided in favor of his newer releases. Mixing his folk roots with early alternative, electronic and world music, anyone listening to Sufjan, would at least take notice, if not necessarily start the celebration just yet. The eclectic songwriter is as unhinged as ever, sometimes wiping distorted chaos into whispered ballad with the ease of a pro, you could already see the vast production intuition amongst the youthful vibe. Although many of these songs do seem adolescent when compared to his further releases, one must at least acknowledge that this is some of the most intelligent adolescent instrumentation that someone so young, yet so open to play, could produce in our sad market.