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The haters might slam Sufjan with invectives like "excessive," "boring," or "wimpy," but nobody in his or her right mind can accuse the guy of being thoughtless or insensitive. Further demonstrating just how much the opposite he is, Sufjan posted a brief essay on the Asthmatic Kitty Sidebar today explaining his thought process whilst covering A Tribute to Joni Mitchell cover cut "Free Man in Paris", one of the few redeeming tracks on that sorry collection of songfare.

"No other songwriter of her generation captured voice, tone, and point-of-view quite as precisely," writes Sufjan of Joni. He goes on to delineate his difficulties with "Joni's rollercoaster vocal lines with all those odd syntaxes and off beat emphases" and the challenge of inhabiting a character such as David Geffen, whose own words allegedly comprise the lyrics of "Free Man".

We could be smug here, but frankly it's refreshing to read an artist discussing his work in such lucid, enlightening terms. Check out the complete essay here.

Be on the lookout for more of Stevens' prose in the upcoming edition of The Best American Nonrequired Reading. And of course, don't miss Sufjan's recent Blogotheque Take-Away Show performance of Innocence Mission masterstroke "The Lakes of Canada".