The thing that I love about the recent Gorillaz is what a bummer it is - a really low-key album. My favorite tracks are the super-gloomy ones like “Kids with guns” and “last living souls.”
Yeah, I know that’s it’s strength; it’s just such a reversal of what I expected that I’m still undergoing the adjustment. That’s why I mentioned the Portishead; the second was darker and deeper, and I just had to find my way into it. Dude, you’re talking to a fan of Low (the band; well, OK, the Bowie album too). So I have a feeling I’ll get there.
I don’t like his stuff, either, though I’ve known about it since he was merely the keyboard player for the Danielson Famile. I think that the bulk of Sufjan’s appeal to people is similar to the appeal of Wes Anderson’s (Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums) films - it affects that sort of preciousness and pageantry that people associate with childhood, a la the Peanuts christmas special.
I don’t know why I read these threads; they just remind how totally out of touch I am.
That said, I’d vote for Frank Black’s Honeycomb.
It seemed to reveal itself to me one song at a time; I think “Jacksonville” was the first track to really catch my attention, and it built out from there. I think it’s a little too much to listen to the whole thing in one sitting. (This is why I have it on vinyl. Now I just have to get a new turntable. 
)
Of course, if you don’t like it, you don’t like it. I didn’t care for the new White Stripes or for Antony and the Johnsons, for reasons I can’t really articulate.