W

One doesn't hear a record like W very often, that's for sure, just as one seldom encounters an artist like Planningtorock's Janine Rostron. In the grip of W's melodrama and uncommon beauty, suddenly all those clichés make sense: this album stops listeners in their tracks, blows their minds and makes them feel alive. W is melancholy and euphoric, epic in scale yet deeply personal, strikingly alien but weirdly familiar, and always daring and original. From the pulse and jabbing pizzicatos on opening track "Doorway," she unveils the album's unsettling yet heady allure. It's littered with passionate gems like "The Breaks"; the baroque boogie of "Living It Out," with grunting and growling straight out of Yoko Ono's "Walking on Thin Ice"; the sharpened percussive scythe of "Jam"; a provocative take of Arthur Russell's "Janine."

Planningtorock stretches sounds and curdles her voice, a queasy rococo rush with an intoxicating quality. There's plenty of saxophone and strings a go-go, but not the cloying kind that lures one into an "emotional" state. Rostron composed W's twelve songs over the last three and a half years, mainly recording in solitude in her Berlin studio. A gifted producer, she sang and played the keyboards, strings and guitar herself, and mixed the record in Sweden at the end of 2010 during an intense session with Christoffer Berg. Additional contributions came from her Icelandic friend Hjörleifur Jónsson, whom she recorded playing percussion which was later used as samples sprinkled across the album, and drummer Pat Mahoney, taped in New York. While she is new to many, those familiar with Planningtorock form a strong emotional connection with her work. No doubt about it, Rostron is totally out there on her own, and with W, she's raised the bar several notches, producing a powerful soul odyssey that comfortably ranks as one of DFA's finest releases.