New Music Reviews – Lana Del Rey, Grouper, Sufjan Stevens and Angelo De Augustine

The most high-profile group of artists for a while – most music fans should have heard of Del Rey and Stevens. Conversely, it’s also the weakest group of releases for a while – Stevens and Del Rey have both made stronger records in the past.

Sufjan Stevens and Angelo De Augustine

A Beginner’s Mind

2021, 7.5/10
A Beginner’s Mind is a collaboration between Sufjan Stevens and Angelo De Augustine, a younger artist on Stevens’ Asthmatic Kitty label. It’s is a concept album – Stevens and De Augustine created it in a cabin in upstate New York, where they’d watch movies for inspiration – each song is inspired by a specific movie. Some links to movies are more explicit than others – ‘Cimmerian Shade’ rhymes “I just want you to love me” with “Fix it all, Jonathan Demme”. The album is self-contained, with the pair providing all the instrumentation and production.

In spite of the collaboration and the concept A Beginner’s Mind feels like Stevens’ most straightforward album for a long time, like a return to the indie-folk days of Seven Swans. Stevens and De Augustine’s voices are distinguishable, but they’re so similar stylistically that it’s all feels of one piece. Due to the detached, academic nature of the project, it lacks the emotional punch that made previous Sufjan projects like ‘Casimir Pulaski Day’ and Carrie & Lowell appealing. ‘Back To Oz’ has an upbeat chorus that’s a welcome breath of fresh air. ‘Pillar of Souls’ was inspired by Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth, and has the arresting first line “I slept for five days/In stillness, I laid full of demonic visions”. De Augustine’s title track is pretty, with a lovely piano motif – inspired by 1990s Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves action movie Point Break.

A Beginner’s Mind is the folk-based Sufjan Stevens album that fans have desired, after weird left turns like Christmas albums and electronica. But it’s a little underwhelming now it’s here.

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Grouper

Shade

2021, 8/10
Like Low last week, Grouper is another artist with a large and acclaimed catalogue whom I haven’t yet discussed on this site. Shade is her twelfth studio album, from a career stretching back to 2005’s CD-R Grouper. Liz Harris grew up in a Fourth Way commune in California – she didn’t take her name from the fish, but because she “felt like the music was at its barest just a grouping of sounds, and I was just the grouper.” Liz Harris’ music operates in a dream-like space – it’s ambient folk, and on Shade it’s based around her acoustic guitar.

Shade runs the gamut from the harsh hiss and distortion of the opening ‘Followed the Ocean’ to the relatively calming sounds of the closer ‘Kelso (Blue Sky)’. It’s effectively a compilation, with the music recorded over a period of 15 years. The quiet, finger-picked songs like ‘The Way Her Hair Falls’ feel retro – they could have been drawn from a much older era, like Vashti Bunyan’s 1970 album Just Another Diamond Day. The closing ‘Kelso (Blue Sky)’ is lovely, a presented in a straightforward manner without the ambience.

In the correct mood, Harris’ moody and pristine music is impossibly gorgeous.

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Lana Del Rey

Blue Banisters

2021, 7/10
Lana Del Rey announced her eighth studio album the day after she released her seventh album, Chemtrails Over The Country Club, in March 2021. It’s something of a clearing house of older tracks – ‘Cherry Blossom’, ‘Living Legend’, and ‘Nectar of the Gods’ date back to 2014’s Ultraviolence. ‘Dealer’ and ‘Thunder’ come from an unreleased album with The Last Shadow Puppets. Guests include Greg Leisz on pedal steel for ‘Text Book’ and Owen Pallett on strings for ‘Thunder’.

Despite the array of producers, Blue Banisters feels of a piece – it’s minimal, elegant Americana. At fifteen tracks, with Del Rey limited to introspective torch songs, and as the second Del Rey album of 2021, it’s less than the sum of its parts. But it’s still laced with some great tracks – ‘Black Bathing Suit’ has a great chorus melody that makes it one of the record’s best earworms. ‘Dealer’ came from the Last Shadow Puppets project – it’s more abrasive than Del Rey’s usual style, using a growly lower register.

I’m coming to the realisation that Del Rey will probably never release a record that I’ll love unreservedly – she’s too limited stylistically. But there are some great tracks on Blue Banisters anyway.

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• New Music Reviews
• Sufjan Stevens Album Reviews
• Lana Del Rey Album Reviews