Listen Back: The letter W
We’re wading deeply into the letter W in our latest alphabet-themed series of album recommendations
Yaeji’s With A Hammer (2023) was one of those hotly anticipated albums that arrived with a bang then instantly disappeared. Its critically lauded approach to synth-pop should have been an audience smash, from the retro-futurist murk of ‘For Granted’ (which could soundtrack the end credits to every cool indie movie for the next decade) to ‘I’ll Remember For Me, I’ll Remember For You’, an early entrant into the party-time vibes of nu-jazz. Want Grimes with less cringe and fewer politically dubious meltdowns? Yaeji is the classier, more astute heir to her throne.
After that sugar rush, a comedown is in order with PJ Harvey’s White Chalk (2007), perhaps one of the most desolate releases of the 21st century. Leaning into piano-led goth folk, its echoey production adds a ghostly hue to songs of life, loss, sorrow, abortion and subsequent regret. Harvey would attempt this falsetto-led sadness again on I Inside The Old Year Dying (which also draws inspiration from England’s West Country), but little can match White Chalk’s heart-wrenching pathos.
Other W listens: We Will Annihilate Our Enemies by Real Lies (2025), Waiting by Fun Boy Three (1983), Wax Limousine by Wesley Gonzalez (2022).