The scrapbook-like cover of All Delighted People makes sense then, as its contents serve as a humble and friendly keepsake, songs that deserve to be heard, but belonging to a chapter in Stevens' artistic livelihood that he needed to close to maintain his vitality.
All Delighted People documents his struggle between fealty to the here-and-now and preparing for the hereafter; accordingly, it's unwieldy, schizophrenic, and frequently devastating.
Stevens is best balancing his composer side with his singer-songwriter side on songs like "Arnika," which packs all that avant-Andrew Lloyd Webber ambition into soft, simple benedictions for bedroom-size cathedrals.
As it stands, All Delighted People is a curious and relatively minor release for Stevens. As a context-less bundle of songs, All Delighted People is Stevens having a little fun while testing the elasticity of his sound.
