Anna von Hausswolff - Live at Montreux Jazz Festival ALBUM REVIEW

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God, the cover’s so dark. I love it.


There’s a first time for everything and this marks the first for something. This will be the first live album I cover on the site, and I’m quite excited that this is the one. The Gothenburg-born musician Anna von Hausswolff has been an artist that’s been climbing onto my radar more and more as I dive into the neoclassical darkwave genre. Hausswolff’s fantastic Dead Magic is one of the first I’ve heard in the genre and the follow-up All Thoughts Fly is just as great. Now, her latest release is a 2018 live performance that has been hyped up a lot for the past few years. It’s finally available to the public, so let’s get into Live at Montreux Jazz Festival.

You know, I’m one of the people that enjoy a live version of a song, but I do prefer studio versions of tracks more often. This album, though? I think these songs are the definitive recordings of each one. There’s really nothing bad about this. Hausswolff’s vocals are incredible, the instruments are performed insanely well, and the aura of the album is genuinely stunning. I mean, these songs are already great with the studio tracks and I never would’ve thought they would be topped, but this live performance did it spectacularly. It’s beyond belief that we have such an incredible achievement this early in the year. I had even told myself that I’d hold back on giving perfect scores willy-nilly this year, but I can’t help it for this project. Live at Montreux Jazz Festival is one of the best live albums I’ve ever heard. The raw talent of Anna von Hausswolff shines through the darkness on this amazing live album.


10/10


Listen here

YouTube Music




Live at Montreux Jazz Festival is a Pomperipossa / Southern Lord release.

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