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CRITIC REVIEWS
100
Equal parts elegant and antagonistic, it comes together to be every part the listening experience that he wanted it to be - complex, unconventional and ultimately, essential.
1mo
100
græ finds him trying to be, well, everything, and through a convergence of folk, jazz, classical, and art-rock, along with his probing lyricism, Sumney has managed to produce a sonic marvel
1mo
91
Grӕ is so rich in content and so vast in musicality it would be impossible to unpack everything in a single review. It is complex yet universal – comforting yet unsettling. It lives in an incorporeal realm of its own, and somehow, Sumney has gained complete and utter command over it.
1mo
90
This intense experience of Sumney’s romanticism signs itself as his most mature, convincing, and dynamic piece of work to date. Compared to his lauded debut LP, here Sumney has produced a grittier, more complex listening experience underlined by improved production, well-rounded hooks, consuming vocal deliveries, and exploratory rhythmics.
1mo
90
Perhaps the only thing more exciting than græ will be seeing where Moses Sumney goes from here.
1mo
90
Scored by Sumney’s most vibrant array of instrumentals to date, the San Bernardino musician’s second set sees him push outward, swapping Aromanticism’s insular fragments for a set of more exposed, yet transient brushstrokes.
1mo
90
Græ is, in summary, a quite astonishing achievement. You won’t hear anything else like it this year. You won’t hear a more extravagantly astonishing voice this century.
1mo
90
Just as he offers the deepest introspection lyrically, so this album merits the same level of attention. It needs a listener’s focus to revel and delight in every one of it nuances. Put your headphones on, lock the door and slip into his world—you will be rewarded.
1mo
90
He’s created, with grae, an album that demands you to look at it, and him, in totality. It is shapeless yet massive, a sprawling interrogation of who created the margins of normalcy, and whether one can reclaim their agency back from systems that have existed longer than they have.
86
The sprawling second album from the crystal-voiced singer-songwriter is a riot of moods. Moses Sumney widens the scope of his work and takes full account of his self, warts and all.
1mo
85
On Sumney’s arresting and remarkable new double-album græ, he now challenges the idea of us as standardised, binary beings.
1mo
85
Though Sumney’s fears of solitude still define much of the album, his embrace of the spaces between binaries opens up new possibilities for self-definition and actualization, and the album suggests that the artist might be rising out of the shadows he explores so tenderly.
1mo
83
Describing its music as ambitious is akin to labeling a stab wound a scrape. If Sumney’s fiery, spiritual 2018 EP Black in Deep Red, 2014 upended fans’ expectations, then Grae is a revelatory shock. Sumney’s music resonates most strongly when—like its lyrics—it destroys pre-established boundaries.
1mo
80
Despite a rarefied lack of tunes, Sumney’s swim in deeper currents is a gripping voyage of discovery.
1mo
80
The musical signals Moses Sumney’s twenty-track epic græ sends out are also vital. He brings shards of art rock, R&B, classical, electronic, jazz, and soul into one beautiful piece of musical kintsugi performed with the precision of a master potter.
1mo
80
When pinned down, Sumney defines his music as “experimental folk-soul-jazz”, but it’s more complex than that. Under his masterful production, it sounds as though there are 20 musicians in the room with him.
1mo
80
With ‘græ’, Sumney calls for a world that doesn’t expect easy answers and doesn’t judge or restrict individuals. This is a brave, vulnerable and ambitious work that asks us to recognise and celebrate our own grey areas. It’s an album full of possibility and startling scope, and which, ultimately, finds peace among the pain.
1mo
80
A powerful and probing collection of songs...
1mo
80
Græ is a textural wonder, with soft electric guitars, Sumney’s beautiful voice, and glittering synths making up most of the album’s heavenly sounding songs.
1mo
70
Split into two parts, the intent is for us to explore the “grey” in-between songs, spaces and words. It’s the kind of artistic abstraction that’s easily dismissed, but with Sumney’s energy sparking throughout this meandering collection of tracks, it’s hard not to be a little suckered in.
1mo
70
While none of the material is necessarily skip-worthy, græ feels a bit like a so-so album topped off with an excellent EP.
1mo
Græ by Moses Sumney is a monumental piece of musical art. It is a piece of music - a piece of a life - no two ways about it. You will never get it out of your head, a phrase or a melody, as you walk through the uncrowded streets of your city, your street, your livelihood. The album as a whole is a masterpiece of cinematic mood. He can do anything. He can create a scene. He can set the entire piece to an infectious hymn or a godlike prayer. He can compose a book of poems. He can ... read more
For some time now, a few years now, we've been observing this trend that some artists use to build an album by setting up parts that are spaced out and published over time like a TV Serie, I'm thinking for example of Denzel Curry, more recently Hayley Williams and of course Moses Sumney with Grae. Personally, although it's a very interesting approach that opens the door to a lot of possibilities for creation, narration and imagination, I generally prefer to have the whole album finished at ... read more
Next to TPAB and Homogenic, this is one of the easiest hundreds I have ever given. While I’m grateful for the time I had to become acquainted with part 1 (at first I thought that Cut Me and Colouour were 9s instead of 10s, I was wrong), immediately upon popping part 2 on on vinyl, this album naturally comes full circle. In the vinyl Booklet, there is a page smack dab in the middle of part two which is only half the letters of an explanation of the meaning of the album, and there’s a ... read more
Just sublime.
Highlights include:
*Bless Me
*Cut Me
*In Bloom
Not too keen on:
*Keeps Me Alive
Highlights include:
*Bless Me
*Cut Me
*In Bloom
Not too keen on:
*Keeps Me Alive
For those who listened to the first part of græ back in February, you may still be reeling from and repeating the triumphant return of Moses Sumney even today. Yet here we are, gifted a few months later with the second part of the record. Two part albums can sometimes be a difficult affair; maintaining the quality of the album across a longer length, justifying the length for the listener, maintaining a logical flow over the full course. Somehow Moses Sumney accomplishes this, revolving ... read more
pitchfork.com
Moses Sumney Is Ready to Claim His Spotlight 
stereogum.com
New Track: Moses Sumney – “Cut Me” 
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Track List
- Insula
- Cut Me
- In Bloom
- Virile
- Conveyor
- boxes
- Gagarin
- jill/jack
- Colouour
- also also also and and and
- Neither/Nor
- Polly
- Two Dogs
- Bystanders
- Me in 20 Years
- Keeps Me Alive
- Lucky Me
- and so I come to isolation
- Bless Me
- before you go
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1mo
oh boy look melon man doesn’t get another one of the year’s best releases once again. but the new strokes record is fantastic isn’t it.
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Added on: November 14, 2019