Census Designated

This album has been added to 2 public lists:

• 

  Vortex's Album of the Year List '24

  Tom

  Jane hated this album for a very long time, according to a tweet that has been deleted (but definitely existed). I can understand why; for someone who, at 17, was able to make something like Frailty (a genre-inventing album), Census Designated is incredibly distinct, so completely different from everything that came before it that it would be understandable if some listeners (and Jane herself, a notorious perfectionist) were turned off at first. But generally, when a creator is afraid of their own creation, it's because the creation is super fucking cool.

  As such, Census Designated is a dragon of an album, one entirely confident in its own existence and monstrously brutal. These songs are long, bleeding their way past fiery daggers of chugging guitar and Lovecraftian flesh walls of pure drum noise. There's hopelessness everywhere here. It drips down the skies the tracks build themselves, scouring fields by way of serpentine choruses and malty vocals. You could choose any song and find brilliance in its fields, but Backseat Girl is one of the most potent; immense screams, cryptic lyrics, an overwhelming impression of pain. That pain is key to Census Designated's success.

  It's felt in the jagged, disjointed lyrics peppering the landscape most of all. There's almost never a coherent story to be found here, and yet you can always feel it. Sexual assault, neglect, abusive relationships. Loneliness. None of this is spelt out, particularly, and yet it's undeniably there.

  There's no start or end to this project. It is sustained purely by its own weight; it's horrifying and depressing, but only because you're never able to understand why. Census Designated's true strength lies in its unknowability. It's unlike any album I've ever heard, and I suspect Jane Remover is going to be looked back on in ten years as both a tastemaker and a stunningly talented musician in her own right. Not only one of my favourite albums this year but an all-timer.

• 

  AOTY 2023

  Raven

  #1