Alabaster DePlume - A Blade Because A Blade Is Whole (Black Vinyl)

The 11-song album covers all of DePlume’s musical touchstones: lush and gentle instrumentals informed by ghostly ancient folk melodies; groove-focused rhythm explorations as a bed for self-searching spoken declamations; sweeping and beautiful string arrangements (in this case by Macie Stewart) set against his trademark vibrato-infused tenor sax whispermoan.

Most of all, A Blade... finds Alabaster DePlume at his most purposeful and direct yet, building on foundations laid through years of writing and touring to craft this ambitious work. Here lyrical explorations of healing, dignity, and struggle set the tone of the music itself—the mysterious and tense sensuality of the Melody Nelson-like strings on “Form a V”; the playful and idiosyncratic echos of the 1960s British Folk scene on “Invincibility”; the golden-era Elvrum level of vocal intimacy on “Too True”—it’s all handed over with such familiarity and intention that the album’s full sonic grandness reveals itself at an IV-drip-pace.