If you thought A$AP Rocky and Jessica Pratt’s collaboration was surprising, wait until you hear this: John Legend has announced an album produced by Sufjan Stevens. And it’s an album of children’s songs.

‘My Favorite Dream’, which goes on sale on August 30, has been released with the single ‘LOVE’, which features Chrissy Teigen, actress, model and wife of John Legend, and their children Luna and Miles.

Legend has explained that the origin of ‘My Favorite Dream’ comes from his own experience, first as a child and then as a father. He says that, during his childhood, his parents would sing him little made-up songs before bed (as so many parents do), and that now he and Chrissy do the same with their children. In fact, nine of the fifteen songs that make up the album are originals by John Legend.

While writing ‘My Favorite Dream,’ Legend wanted the song arrangements to sound “magical” and “dreamlike” and thought Sufjan Stevens could make them a reality. Legend “knew that Sufjan’s style would be perfect for building the song’s arrangements and landscapes” and says that Sufjan was his “first and only choice.” What he didn’t expect was that Stevens would readily agree.

Stevens, one of America’s great composers for the past twenty years, author of great works such as ‘Illinois’ (2005), made headlines in 2023 for revealing that he suffers from a rare neurological disease, Guillain-Barré syndrome. His last album, ‘Javelin’, was released that year.