I read that article and was blown away! Like it was mentioned before, if half of it was true it would still be awesome.
Then again, was it really the way it was recorded that was so great? Not for me. It was just great material.
I do have to say though, I think Sufjan is being a little more than cheeky (maybe hipster cheeky?) when at the end of the article he's talking about playing phone tag wih Rick Rubin and asking whether or not he should "call him back", like he's never heard of the guy. Yeah right...