The Ascension

The Ascension was released on 25 September 2020 on Asthmatic Kitty, after the singles America on 3 July, Video Game on 13 August with a video choreographed by Jalaiah Harmon, and Sugar on 15 September. Its influences included Ariana Grande and her 2018 song Thank U, Next. According to Pitchfork's Sam Sodomsky, most of it was recorded on a drum machine and several Prophet synthesizers while his acoustic guitars and banjos were in storage during a move from Brooklyn to the Catskills. Stevens is credited with the vocals, drums, synthesizers, guitar and piano, with bass, vibraphone and guitar from Casey Foubert, additional drums from James McAlister and a guitar part from Bryce Dessner on the first track.

NPR's Lindsay Zoladz called it an 80-minute meditation that revisits nearly every grand theme of his career. Metacritic gave it 80. Sodomsky was cooler, calling it by design kind of a drag, though he singled out the title track as one of the best songs Stevens had written. Die Happy has a single lyric, "I want to die happy", and America runs almost twelve minutes.