'The Music' team on the releases you need to hear from 2021.
There is barely an acoustic guitar or analogue drum kit to be heard in Julia Stone’s Sixty Summers.
From the get-go, the artist had notched herself deep into the trenches of indie folk-pop as a duo with brother Angus, but with her 2021 release, Stone is a completely different musician.
It seems this transformation is aided in no small part by St Vincent (aka Annie Clark) - who leant her ears to the album as a producer. Traipsing an eerily similar part to Clark in terms of musical evolution, Stone has wholly embraced the experimental nature of her final product. Add in further collaborations from the likes of Meg Mac and The National’s Matt Berninger, and the communal effort of the LP shines through.
Sixty Summers will likely surprise fans of Stone’s previous offerings, but the continuing transformation of the singer makes for an unquestionably fascinating listen.