Composed as a geographical tone poem, Michigan follows a metaphysical expedition through the idiosyncrasies of middle America. Drawing from personal anecdotes, regional history, and state heritage, Sufjan Stevens mixes social and political grievances with songs about snowmobiles, Henry Ford, the Detroit race riots, and love. Michigan's songs resonate with a range of sources – Vince Guaraldi, Terry Riley, and Nick Drake as accompanied by Stereolab and The Sea & Cake – in executing Stevens' peculiar palette that is simultaneously rock and blue-grass, jazz and pop, a style The Village Voice appraises as "Arthur Lee meets the Book of Psalms."