It is the tenth track and lead single from his seventh studio album, Carrie & Lowell, and was released digitally on February 16, 2015 on Asthmatic Kitty and as a one-track 7" on March 3, 2015 on Joyful Noise Recordings.

Jeremy D. Larson stated that,[4] Once again, Sufjan Stevens is finger-picking and whisper-singing to guide us towards cold moments of solitude and reverence.

"No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross" seems like a reflexive pendulum swing away from everything his challenging Age of Adz stood for.

No more high-concept art statements, just old-fashioned songwriting; a man playing guitar on a stool in the corner of a café.

The white noise is not an affected tape hiss, but rather the fan of an air conditioner, running on high, blasting into Stevens' apartment.