Subway Album Review #10Anna von Hausswolff

The following is based on a true story: I literally selected the following album at random and listened to it on my way to work. Also, I am started to get tired of typing out "Subway Album Review" every time, so maybe I will start abbreviating and filling my blog with SARs. Better yet: "Ben's SARS." A magnificent and appropriate title for this blog.

#10 - Anna von Hauswolff - The Miraculous

My expectations are low. I selected this album at random from a list of new releases on Spotify. Also I can't tell if "Anna von Hausswolff" is one person or a band, because it's the sort of name a kid gives him/herself when pretending to be an orphan raised by wild animals. But what's this...

With some long foghorn blasts, the album begins. Is it to warn us of rocky shores to come? Or to alert us and wake us from whatever haze we currently find ourselves in? Regardless, it's got my attention. And indeed, something mysterious is afoot; something wicked this way comes. I can't tell exactly how these sounds were made - are these synthesizers or heavily processed strings? I can't put my finger on it...

I'm not usually that into music that people commonly described as "atmospheric," but this is on the rad end of that spectrum. The arrangements are great, from sweetly ominous to downright heavy behind-the-beat jams. Wait, what's this..

There's a lot going on here, and I definitely need to give this a few more listens sometime when I'm not in the subway to be able to explain why I enjoy this so much. At any rate, I can safely say with a pretty high degree of certainty that this is one of the best albums I ever randomly selected to review on this blog.

TL;DR Man, there's a lot to love about this.