This message comes from Song Exploder, a podcast where artists talk about the making and meaning of one of their songs, taking you layer by layer through the instruments and sounds in the recording.

Find Song Exploder wherever you listen to podcasts. It'll change the way you listen to music.

All right, we've got a pretty special episode of all songs considered this week. It's a conversation

with Sufjohn Stevens, all about his album

Carrie and Lowell.

Spirit of my silence, I can hear you, but I'm afraid to be near you. And I don't know where to begin.

And I don't know where to begin.

So Carrie and Lowell is a pretty big album for me, and I think for a lot of people.

It's my favorite that Sufion Stevens ever did. I think maybe it's the best thing he's done.

It came out ten years ago. There's a big 10th anniversary version of it now.

It's got some unreleased tracks.

There's a new essay from

Sufjohn Stevens in the liner notes that's a pretty incredible read. Also a whole bunch of

photos like there's this whole photo album's worth of stuff. You know, Sufion Stevens is a pretty

interesting guy. He doesn't really do a lot of interviews. And in fact, when Carrie and Lowell first came out, I really wanted to talk with him about it.

But he only did a couple of interviews, and I read one of them.

And honestly, it was all so heartbreaking.

I got it. I thought I wouldn't want to talk about this any more than he already had.

You know, Carrie and Lowell, the songs have a lot of pain in them, a lot of sadness and grief.

It's all about his mom.

And he didn't really know her very well.

The story that's often told, the one that Sufion himself was told when he was older,

...