Released: 15th May 2020
Rating: ★★★★★
Where his debut album ‘Aromanticism’ was a delicate and unravelling look at the many forms of love that can exist to someone who is yet to touch upon their own ideas of what it means, Moses Sumney’s aptly titled follow-up ‘græ’ is a defiantly self-assured declaration in accepting that binaries are not for everyone in a world filled with archaic notions on companionship, and that existing in the other is nothing to be afraid of, albeit trying at times.
Splitting the mammoth release over two parts, but still somehow not seeming long enough, he ruminates on not making peace with dying alone in ‘Neither/Nor’ and navigating the spaces where the lines of friendship are blurred, ‘In Bloom’ which serves as a nod to ‘Make Out In My Car’. With his intangible genre-blurring expressionism at work more so than ever, the consistency of Ayesha Faines, Taiye Selasi, Jill Scott and Ezra Miller’s spoken word musings is a salve that helps bind easily influenced minds that hang on each of Moses’ words. ‘Two Dogs’ draws the listener to a reality which is almost enraptured by the ennui of not being able to say that they’ve encountered the fairy-tale romance, or felt an inkling of emotion for anything sentient, whilst ‘before you go’ makes no mistake in trying to butter up the fact that they know some things weren’t meant to last.
A polymath in the throes of love; Moses Sumney may still be searching for some of the answers, but his growth thus far is undeniable.
Tyler Damara Kelly
