Aromanticism
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Album Summary
Moses Sumney's debut full-length album 'Aromanticism' came into this world on September 22, 2017, through Jagjaguwar Records — and honey, when it arrived, it arrived like nothing else that year. Largely self-produced by Sumney himself, the album was built up over several years, with orchestral arrangements and ambient textures woven in to create something that felt both intimate and vast. Sumney had been living that artist's journey, relocating from Los Angeles to New York, sitting with his feelings about emotional detachment and romantic indifference, and letting those reflections ferment into something extraordinary. Two EPs had already set the stage and warmed up the critical crowd, but 'Aromanticism' was the full statement — accompanied by visually striking performance videos that made clear this brother was not just making music, he was conjuring an entire world.
Reception
- The album earned widespread critical acclaim, landing on numerous year-end best-of lists for 2017 — including recognition from Pitchfork, which celebrated its emotional and sonic ambition as something genuinely rare and special in the landscape of contemporary music.
- While not a mainstream commercial juggernaut, 'Aromanticism' moved powerfully through independent and alternative music circles, introducing Moses Sumney to an international audience and growing his following far beyond what those earlier EPs had touched.
- Critics consistently singled out Sumney's breathtaking falsetto and the album's lush yet restrained production as its most defining qualities, with many calling it one of the most distinctive and fully realized debut albums of the entire year.
Significance
- 'Aromanticism' stands as a landmark in avant-soul and art-pop — a record that drew from minimalist folk, ambient, and classical traditions and wove them into something that laughed in the face of genre categorization, pushing the singer-songwriter format into genuinely uncharted territory.
- The album's thematic core — centering aromanticism, the absence of romantic attraction, as its conceptual framework — was a bold and culturally significant move, bringing a subject almost entirely absent from popular music into the light, and resonating deeply with LGBTQ+ and aromantic communities around the world.
- Moses Sumney emerged from this record as a singular artistic voice, and 'Aromanticism' is widely cited as a touchstone influence on the wave of experimental Black artists who followed in the late 2010s, blending introspective lyricism with unconventional sonic palettes in ways that owe a real debt to what this man laid down.
Tracklist
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A1 Man On The Moon (Reprise) —
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A2 Don't Bother Calling —
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A3 Plastic —
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A4 Quarrel —
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A5 Stoicism —
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A6 Lonely World —
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B1 Make Out In My Car —
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B2 The Cocoon-Eyed Baby —
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B3 Doomed —
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B4 Indulge Me —
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B5 Self-Help Tape —
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B6 Untitled —
Artist Details
Moses Sumney is a genre-defying singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who emerged from Los Angeles in the early 2010s, though his roots trace back to Ghana where he spent part of his childhood, and that rich cross-cultural soul runs deep through every note he lays down. His sound is something otherworldly — a gorgeous, sweeping blend of art pop, neo-soul, and experimental folk built around that achingly beautiful falsetto voice and lush, cinematic arrangements that make you feel like you're floating somewhere between heaven and heartbreak. With landmark albums like *Aromanticism* in 2017 and the sprawling double album *græ* in 2020, Sumney carved out a singular space in contemporary music as a fearless Black artist challenging the very definitions of genre, identity, and emotional expression in ways that feel both timeless and urgently necessary.