asthmatic kitty releases 'the age of adz' (pronounced odds) - sufjan stevens' first full-length collection of original songs since 2005's civic pop opus 'illinois'. 'the age of adz' is heavily arranged with brass, strings, woodwinds and a lush choir of backing voices, like the soundtrack to the most astonishing cosmic musical ever created. the live elements create vivacious juxtapositions against the montage of synthesized sounds, evoking their own kind of literal 'sonic theory' that is, the conflict and resolution between real and unreal, or ordinary vs extraordinary. 'the age of adz' refers to the apocalyptic art ofroyal robertson (1930 - 1997), a black, louisiana-based sign-maker (and self-proclaimed prophet) who suffered from schizophrenia, and whose work depicts the artist's vivid dreams and visions of space aliens, futuristic automobiles, eccentric monsters and signs of the last judgment, all cloaked in a confusing psychobabble of biblical prophecy, numerology, nordic mythology and comic book jargon.