9. The StavesThe Way Is Read

There are albums I adore like Loveless which I barely play, and then there are albums like this which I play a lot. The Staves are three sisters who sing in a folk style, and they’ve got these amazing family harmonies – they’re known as blood harmonies. There’s a melancholy to their sound, but also a lightness, and it’s not difficult to listen to at all, but the way they join together is always interesting. 

On this record they’ve collaborated with yMusic, and it’s more experimental, somewhere between modern classical and folk. There are beautiful clarinets and woodwind arrangements, and it’s sometimes very rhythmic, very much like minimalism at times, in a Steve Reich-y style. But other songs are stripped right back so you can hear the space and silence. It’s a record I can have on at any time – as I do – but it’s always really enriching.