Sumney, Moses / Aromanticism
Album: Aromanticism   Collection:General
Artist:Sumney, Moses   Added:Oct 2017
Label:Jagjaguwar  

A-File Activity
Add Date: 2017-10-12 Pull Date: 2017-12-14
Week Ending: Dec 10 Dec 3 Nov 26 Nov 19 Nov 12 Nov 5 Oct 29 Oct 22
Airplays: 1 1 1 3 1 2 1 3

Recent Airplay
1. Sep 02, 2021: Waste FM (rebroadcast from Nov 28, 2017)
Lonely World
4. May 14, 2018: regular school
Plastic
2. Aug 26, 2021: National Treasure (rebroadcast from Nov 20, 2017)
Plastic
5. Apr 26, 2018: The Flannel Underground
Plastic
3. May 24, 2018: The Flannel Underground
Make Out In My Car
6. Dec 09, 2017: Music Casserole
Quarrel

Album Review
Jabbering Encore
Reviewed 2017-10-08
This album was a long time coming, and it’s worth the wait. Moses Sumney has a hell of a voice—a moody, androgynous instrument—and he uses it to great effect over his spare compositions, which are typically composed of looped acoustic guitar playing and strings. I’ve heard Sumney compared to Dirty Projectors and Radiohead, and while I can kind of understand why, they’re not perfect fits; rather than envelope-pushing weirdness, Sumney’s songwriting strikes a balance of folk and soul without really sounding like anything in either genre. Alongside Sampha’s Process and SZA’s Ctrl, I'd call this one of the year’s best and most unique debuts.

FCCs: None
Favorites: 3, 4, 6, 9, 10

1) “Man on the Moon (Reprise)” (0:36) – Short intro composed of processed vocals.
2) “Don’t Bother Calling” (3:59) – Repeated, hollow acoustic guitar riff and strings form the instrumental backbone. Sumney sings almost in a constant falsetto here, and it’s wondrous.
3) “Plastic” (3:08)* – Strummed acoustic guitar riff sounds like it’s being heard through an old transistor radio. For reasons I can’t explicate, this song makes me think of an old folk song—like something I’ve heard before even if I can’t remember where.
4) “Quarrel” (6:45)* – There’s a drum machine that spits out a bossa nova-inspired beat, multi-tracked vocals, and even a harp. The song picks up the pace after the three-minute mark before morphing into an extended outro. (There’s an edit of the song on YouTube that shaves that outro off, or you can end early at 4:15. But why would you want to?)
5) “Stoicism” (1:02) – Short spoken-word piece that leads directly into the following song. Footsteps, soft swells of horn, and a plinking sound—a piano?—in the background.
6) “Lonely World” (4:48)* – First minute and a half of the song is driven by acoustic guitar and vocals. After that, the song builds in energy, adding percussion, horns, and haunting background vocals, all the way up to a rousing climax.
7) “Make Out in My Car” (2:35) – Psychedelic soul with bursts of woodwinds, strings, and finger snaps. Features a repeated refrain: “I’m not tryna go to bed with you / I just wanna make out in my car.”
8) “The Cocoon-Eyed Baby” (1:09) – Another short spoken-word piece with twinkling notes of guitar.
9) “Doomed” (4:27)* – Sumney sings almost acapella over a serene, brooding electronic tone. Sumney pushes his falsetto to new, powerful heights. Soulful in a very different way from “Make Out in My Car”, but even more affecting.
10) “Indulge Me” (3:16)* – Perhaps the most straightforward and accessible song on the album, with Sumney crooning the titular phrase over strummed acoustic guitar.
11) “Self-Help Tape” (3:01) – A beautiful, cascading acoustic guitar arpeggio repeats throughout the song, floating underneath Sumney’s scat singing. (When pitch-shifted words actually start to take shape in the final moments of the song, it’s almost an intrusion.)

Track Listing
1. Man On The Moon (Reprise)   6. Lonely World
2. Don't Bother Calling   7. Make Out In My Car
3. Plastic   8. The Cocoon-Eyed Baby
4. Quarrel   9. Doomed
5. Stoicism   10. Indulge Me
  11. Self-Help Tape