“the infinite spine” by Lauren Auder

A striking, voluptuous underground release.

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Welcome to a new edition of the Best Music of All Time newsletter!

Today’s music pick is one of the year's most voluptuous underground releases featuring striking, heartfelt vocals.

Genre: Alternative, Art Pop

Label: True Panther

Release Date: July 21, 2023

Vibe: 🤩

A singular kind of raw beauty is woven into every weighty breath of Lauren Auder’s debut LP, the infinite spine. Part coming-of-age story, part coming-out-as-trans document, and part coming-to-grips-with-old-wounds therapy session, this is music that engulfs, submerging you in dark, velvety sonics without totally snuffing out the light that guides you towards its satisfying climax. Ping-ponging between rococo orchestration and driving pop rhythms, the showstopper at the center of it all is Auder’s deep baritone. It easily conveys gravitas that injects a sharp world-weariness into her lyrics. In the opener, “33 & golden,” she remarks, “I was born an open wound that only suicide could sew up,” a statement that her voice makes us believe unconditionally.

Though it can walk up to the line of being an uncomfortable listen, especially in this first half, infinite is by no means a complete downer. “I hope that listening to [the album] feels like digging yourself out of a hole,” remarked Auder in an interview with NME, an ascent that begins with the Mura Masa-produced “the ripple.” The track serves as a desperate cry for acceptance, its urgency underscored by the industrial-adjacent instrumentals reminiscent of a young Trent Reznor. The record grows more and more cinematic with each song, culminating in the catharsis of “we2assume2many2roles” and the quiet perfection of “all needed here,” which ends in diametric opposition to the album’s initial sentiments: “And after all/We’re all needed here.”

A fiercely personal record from a voice to watch.

👉 Don’t forget to click the album image to stream the album on your favorite platform 👈