Sufjan Stevens, the invisible man
By Laura Fernandez
Sufjan Stevens
Javelin
Asthmatic Kitty / Popstock!
No matter how lysergic, dissonant, electronic, baroque and cryptic it appears—there are the recent and inexplicable five volumes of Convocations (2021), music from a future that may not exist—the feeling is that Sufjan Stevens, in some way, dissolves in each new album he releases. Each track is literally a piece of itself. Or, one would say, it contains a part of his soul, and it is an extremely vulnerable and powerful part at the same time. Something tiny that, terribly damaged, heals, grows, becomes gigantic and forever indestructible when it takes the form of a song. And all of that has arguably never been more evident than on his new album, the liberating, sad, redemptive and luminously compassionate, sorrowful and masterful Javelin.
Recorded alone in his home with great delicacy – the same with which a first cut, ‘Goodbye Evergreen’, grows, which becomes an instant classic of the album -, along with a handful of friendly collaborators, such as The National’s guitarist, Bryce Dessner, who lives on the same block, Javelin He delves into the inexhaustible inner world of Detroit, extracting gems capable of giving meaning to his entire career, and to a way of being in the world, such as the enormous ‘Shit Talk’. Sufjan hands over his weapons in a majestic cut of more than eight minutes, repeating to himself that he does not plan to fight – “I don’t want to fight at all”, he says -, proud of not doing so, happy not to participate, to lose for the rest but not for him.
There is an immense peace in that closing – which precedes the crystalline and deep tribute to Neil Young: ‘There’s a World’, the Harvest cut, sounds like a throwaway from Carrie & Lowell, the album of mourning for his parents, with a velvety altfolk, which has more points in common with this one—, and in songs, almost fables, like the expansive ‘My Red Little Fox’. There is no way to know for sure how the death of her boyfriend, Evans Richardson, impacted the conception or production of Javelin. The artist dedicates the album to him, and there are unanswered questions on it like ‘Will Anybody Ever Love Me’? — “Will anyone ever love me?” —, which seem like shots of pain, beautifully domesticated, and intimately related to the loss of him.
And the truth is that the album by the man who was born invisible and who continues to consider himself that way – that’s what he says about himself in ‘So You Are Tired’ – is pure emotional landscape. And that sadness that, in Carrie & Lowell, she considered herself a sketch of something unbearable, here she spreads her wings and builds a new peak in Stevens’ career, perhaps the highest, combining and taking further the contained fury of ‘Chicago’, at that time , digressive and anthological, of its ambitious Illinois (2015). He does it through a very powerful intimacy, that of the one who tries to close the wound, all the wounds, in front of others. Because he is like this, and not in any other way, how he communicates with the world and with himself.
Mitski, retro elegance
By Xavi Sancho
![This cover image released by Dead Oceans shows "The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We" by Mitski. (Dead Oceans via AP)](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/8sfLIjXiX2kEYMmBnX8NbhPAsYQ=/414x414/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/FAY4OGT7PFFDRKUYR656OULOBM.jpg)
Mitsky
The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We
Dead Oceans/Popstock!
Mitski is one of those very well-known artists in very restricted areas. So much so that, a couple of years ago, after delivering her album Laurel Hella wonderful artifact loaded with eighties synths and sadness post coitus, the Japanese artist living in Nashville declared that she was leaving him, that she couldn’t handle fame. Those who knew her and had just given her her first hit on the American charts couldn’t believe it. Those who did not know her now have a new opportunity to become familiar with her game, which is none other than that of lunatic pop, the one that maintains an indisputable quality thanks to talent, but that can be presented in almost disparate forms depending on the emotional moment in which its creator is found. Mitski was very angry at Laurel Hell. Now, however, she seems to be at peace with herself, to the point of daring again to joke with her doubts and with how ridiculous we humans can feel for projecting our concerns so much, hoping for some kind of coherent response to our babbling. without sense.
Thus, the album is full of moments in which Mitski flirts with the terrain of the hackneyed, but ends up successfully coming out of almost every challenge she has gotten into, let’s remember, by herself. We are talking about an album that describes a dramatic emotional breakup, and then celebrates it because she has just given us the option of being able to go around the house naked. And she does it with a musical approach that leaves the synthetic and the eighties behind to embrace Gram Parsons, Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra, Glen Campbell, even Phil Spector. There are waltz rhythms, there are sumptuous orchestrations of those that were recorded in studios lined with wood and cocaine in Harry Nilson’s Los Angeles. There are flowing melodies and children’s choruses. There is retro elegance, which is born from impeccable taste and a talent that doesn’t need to feel original to shine. There is a sediment that tastes a bit bitter, which sometimes she wants to drink in one gulp; Others, just squirt into a room to see what comes out.
The Metamorphosis of Corinne Bailey Rae
By Iñigo López Palacios
![Cover by Corinne Ray Bailey, 'Black Rainbows' (Thirty Tigers/Sony).](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/9q4OSx200AP3mqc8Q33OvjPmnEs=/414x414/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/CYED4AKJ6RBWVP6363AWSGZHS4.jpg)
Corinne Bailey Rae
Black Rainbows
Thirty Tigers / Sony
Four albums in 17 years. Her appearances are so sporadic that the name of the British singer Corinne Bailey Rae rings a bell, but it’s hard to remember what. In fact, after listening Black Rainbows The logical thing is to think that he is not who you thought. Is this girl really the one who signed the nice but innocuous ‘Put Your Records On’ in 2006? It is, although now I remember in a song the loudest Radiohead from the stage of Kid A and in another remember postpunk pioneers like ESG. His new album is inspired by what he calls a “personal metamorphosis” motivated by his discovery of the Stony Island Arts Bank, a Chicago archive that rescues the memory of forgotten people of color. Welcome to the changes if they are like that.
Lydia Loveless, a new ‘look’
By Fernando Navarro
![Cover of Lydia Loveless, 'Nothing's Gonna Stand in My Way' (Bloodshot)](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/Rocb98X8j4mAvoFnjR1ILc1RZ1I=/414x414/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/WRTWCDOIHFGVHJROUTHQSNWRMU.jpg)
Lydia Loveless
Nothing’s Gonna Stand in My Way Again
bloodshot
Lydia Loveless appeared in 2014 in the country-rock like a little hurricane with the disk Somewhere Else. A work with which he became strong as a voice full of pride and brave road sounds, between euphoria and chewed pain, consolidated in 2016 with another great work like Real. With her raw timbre and her sharp guitars, there always lived in her a somewhat punk heart. Now, she offers a very interesting change. She sounds more pop, less accelerated and with an attractive touch newwave, even power pop as in ‘Do the Right Thing’. As if she had changed her boots for Converse and, along the way, had put on colorful highlights. Closer to Amanda Shires than Lucinda Williams. The new look It suits him very well.
Dancing with Troye Sivan
By Beatriz G. Aranda
![Cover of Troye Sivan, Something to Give Each Other (Universal).](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/D28EOGz30T7_2iAJztnBs6jd-II=/414x414/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/3LD6HEHLXJH2PPZ3CXK7LAGN4Y.jpg)
Troy Sivan
Something to Give Each Other
Universal
Australian Troye Sivan, already established as a global pop star and also an LGTBI+ icon, releases his own post-pandemic liberation album. It is a festive artifact where the narrative focuses on the celebration of being together, especially if it is dancing to the rhythm of a house excessively colored, in line with the works of Bruno Mars, and in a fluid, open and sexual context. Supported in the composition by names omnipresent in commercial music, such as Oscar Görres (Taylor Swift, Sam Smith) and Ian Kirkpatrick (Dua Lipa), the album takes off when the production becomes more funk, as in ‘What’s The Time Where You Are’ or in ‘Silly’, which in the advertised singles which have been ‘Rush’ or ‘One of Your Girls’.
Travis Birds conveys truth
By Carlos Marcos
![Travis Birds, 'Dog Wish'](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/afeiIzEarLcaUVF-qW6RyAN-puc=/414x414/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/2R4PZHMYBRCGBDFZ3NSUAY2PWE.png)
Travis Birds
dog wish
Calaverita Records
The music of Travis Birds from Madrid does not give the option to listen to it while doing another activity. This album, the third of his career, is not one of those. He has a vocal texture that captures you because of his vehemence and a property that many would like and only a few have been granted: transmitting truth. It’s about putting on the record, closing your eyes and enjoying the journey. What is said in that very personal voice contributes to the listener’s engrossment: stories of desires, whether carnal or imaginary, which are also valid. We already have a seductive common thread, now we have to put music to it and Birds supports his proposal by playing without plans: it can sound a little Latin, or flamenco, or rock. A sensational album.
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