Pitchfork

If you haven't already auctioned off your pre-cease and desist copy of Illinois...too late. While copies printed from now on will feature new artwork, the initial pressings shipped to stores for the July 5 release date will be sold as originally planned. We reported yesterday that the new Sufjan Stevens album could no longer be sold with its original artwork, presumably due to the image of $uperman on the album cover. However, Asthmatic Kitty had been selling the record from its website for weeks in advance, so the dirty copies were already circulating. Also, iTunes was selling the album beginning yesterday (with bonus tracks!).

But now you can head on down to the record store and buy it. An email message sent to retailers yesterday evening by the label's distribution company said: "Any retail outlet which currently has Sufjan Stevens' Illinois in their possession can now sell at will. This can be done with the full blessing of Asthmatic Kitty and SC Distribution."

Unfortunately, that's not the end of the story. "We are not able to ship any more copies from our warehouse," the message continued. "Asthmatic Kitty is still dealing with unresolved issues. Right now, worst case scenario is that we have to wait until a repress with new artwork lands-- conservatively, that would be around the first week of August."

So get 'em while they're hot. Or, if you can't find it in stores, buy it on iTunes and then buy it again when the new edition comes out in stores...hmm...$ufjan?...nah. Why the sudden move to sell, sell, sell? The email addressed this decision: "There are two main reasons for this development: 1) We were largely unsuccessful in our attempts to get the large chains to comply with our cease and desist request. We did not want to disadvantage independent retailers because of that. 2) We realize that many stores have a limited buying budget each week/month. And may have spent a good chunk of their budget buying on Sufjan. Despite the unresolved issues that Asthmatic Kitty still faces, they wanted to make things as right as possible and allow stores to sell what they have."

Well, that's that. Go hunt the album down, even if the journey takes you to every Borders and Best Buy in your town.

href="http://pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/s/stevens_sufjan/illinois.shtml">Sufjan Stevens: Illinois
* Sufjan Stevens: