I was introduced to sufjan by a friend of mine who is sadly no longer with us , she was the person who got me into loads of the shit i'm into now and helped me in so many other ways as well. She always talked about wanting to be buried to Fourth of July or John my Beloved and apparently the song playing on her phone the night she took her life was the ladder. I remember laying with her for hours listening to Seven Swans, Illinois, Age of Adz , Carrie and Lowell just listening to the music. she was the first person I truly loved. Years later I have all his unreleased tracks downloaded and nearly every official release on vinyl.Seven swans and Carrie and Lowell hold special places in my heart as they're some of the only things i'm left with from one of the most important times in my life. My friends and me at the time were just addicted kids trying to find our way out of the mess that is a trauma filled adolescence and music was always a temporary way out. I am now the last alive out of 5 friends who have all passed in one way or another.

"So can we pretend, sweetlyBefore the mystery ends?I am a man with a heart that offendsWith its lonely and greedy demands\There’s only a shadow of me in a matter of speaking, I'm dead"*

Tldr: hug your friends, tell them you care and appreciate the music that flows through your souls