Sold Date: August 3, 2021
Start Date: July 17, 2021
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ADULT OWNED SEALED SHIPPED WITH CARE

The debut album from Moses Sumney is a soulful, cosmic embrace of aloneness. His deep blue songwriting examines the blasé cruelty that defines intimacy in our swipe-left era.

Aromanticism received widespread acclaim from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 85, based on 15 reviews.[9] Brian Josephs of Spin gave a positive review, stating, "The dreamy project leaves the snide social critiques and radicalisms to the wayside for 36 minutes that feel of its own realm, where the dichotomies and bodily desire feel self-contained. The intimacy is never lost within the set's high concept: For an album centered on lonesomeness, Aromanticism feels warm."Aromanticism was named "Best New Music", with Pitchfork reviewer Jason King calling it "a musical detoxification from the exhausting stream of information that now constitutes a normal day of news." In his review, Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune states, "The songs run together, serene yet troubled, beautiful yet bruised. They are built to linger."[11] Nina Corcoran of Consequence of Sound praised the album, stating, "It requires multiple listens. In turn, that helps the listener grow, revealing spaces where their own narrative and experiences can intertwine with his—not in a romantic sense, but in an educational sense. As a result, Aromanticism already has become and promises to remain one of the most emotionally therapeutic albums of the year." The Los Angeles Times called it "breathtakingly beautiful", writing, "Sumney places layer upon layer of his voice into tracks until he achieves Beach Boys-esque harmony."Anna Alger of Exclaim! said, "With Aromanticism, Moses Sumney creates a harmonious world in which he speaks from a position that isn't often recognized. Sumney approaches the complexities of relationships, power structures and an inability to experience romantic love with a quiet, powerful confidence."Harriet Gibsone of The Guardian wrote: "When music sounds this complete and absorbing, it's a wonder we waste our lives chasing coexistence with sweaty, needy humans anyway." Kitty Empire of The Observer gave the album a positive review, calling Sumney's falsetto "celestial" but felt the underuse of his lower register was a drawback.Shahzaib Hussain of Clash echoed the same sentiment, calling Sumney's lower register "a cottony, sinewy part of his arsenal reduced to a mere cameo."
The concept of aromanticism—the incapacity or unwillingness to reciprocate romantic feelings or love—runs throughout Sumney’s fragile, existential lyrics: Broken, disappointed, and isolated, Sumney is like Melville’s forlorn Bartleby staring somberly out the window into the void—or, perhaps, a 21st-century version of Tina Turner whispering “What’s love got to do with it?” But he finds radical politics in foreclosing the possibility of finding lasting intimacy and love with a partner. On the burnished “Doomed,” he sings: “If lovelessness is godlessness/Will you cast me to the wayside?” Then there’s the ressentiment of “Indulge Me”: “Nobody troubles my body after/All my old others have found lovers.” In these moments, Sumney is decidedly more downer Friedrich Nietzsche than liberationist James Baldwin.