For impatient people like me, I've already listen to it on NPR's website which offered a free streaming of the entire album.
You will love it or you will hate it. It's very different from what he has previously created with his album "Seven Swans" or "Illinoise".
It will definitely surprise your ears and your concentration, so leave what you was doing, sit on you sofa and turn up the volume.
The backing vocals are still there, but banjos, intimist and peaceful folk ballads are gone. This album is anger, passion and madness.
Sufjan has taken a completely different orientation with "The Age of Adz", using synth and electronic sounds for a schizophrenic, dynamic and pop effect.
It's busy, complexe, mad, possessed. You will need more than 1 listen to have a point of view of the album and adapt your ears to these suprising sounds.
"I Want To Be Well" - "Vesuvius" - "I Walked" and "Impossible Sound" are particularly awesome...
"(...)I remember once when I was a kid and I was showing an interest in art and music, and my dad sat me down and said, ‘All art comes from the dark side,’" he said.
"He said the dark side isn’t evil or bad but that’s where it resides, and if you choose a creative life, then you’re choosing to reside in the darkness." He paused. "I don’t know where he’s getting that from. Maybe he was high or something. But that really has stayed with me."
- a Sufjan Stevens interview from the New York Times
