November: 18 albums you need to hear this month
Month's listening sorted
Visionist 'Value' (Big Dada)
Visionist’s follow-up to ‘Safe’ once again invites you into a troubled world, as seen through the eyes of an artist. But this time, we’re left blinking into neon lights post-anxiety attack, with our pupils hastily trying to readjust and our pulses still racing. The album starts as it means to go on, with a haze of cinematic emotions and crackly crooning; the 10-track LP also features Visionist’s own vocals for the first time, as the producer explores weighty ideas of self-love, self-deprecation and self-preservation. The LP’s reserved, unadulterated strength is what carries it through, saturating tracks such as ‘Homme’ and all of its masculine connotations. If ‘Safe’ was Visionist’s “personal portrait of anxiety”, then ‘Value’ is his awakening. Jasmine Kent-Smith
9/10