Reviewers of Illinois have compared Stevens ' style to Steve Reich , Vince Guaraldi , the Danielson Famile , Neil Young , Nick Drake , and Death Cab for Cutie . Stevens ' use of large orchestral arrangements in his music — much of it played by himself through the use of multi @-@ track recording — have been noted by several reviewers . Rolling Stone summarized the musical influences of Illinois , saying " the music draw from high school marching bands , show tunes and ambient electronics ; we can suspect Steve Reich 's Music for 18 Musicians is an oft @-@ played record in the Stevens household , since he love to echo it in his long instrumental passages . " A review in The A.V. Club referred to some of the vocal work as " regressively twee communalism " , but found Stevens ' music overall to be " highly developed " . The song " Come On ! Feel the Illinoise ! " use a saxophone part from " Close to Me " by The Cure .