Asthmatic Kitty

“It takes a special kind of mind / If you’re gonna learn to be a clockmaker,” Lancaster, Pennsylvania’s Denison Witmer sings on his latest album of wonderfully rich songs, called Anything At All. He’s a songwriter long in his game, who landed on Sufjan Stevens‘ label Asthmatic Kitty around 2010, and he’s written a slew of album with songs that often deal simply and honestly, with domestic and spiritual themes, something that shows up in spades on his latest release.

“I’m frightened by the end / I’m drowning in my self-defense / Now punish me,” intones Sufjan Stevens in “Goodbye Evergreen”, the vivid and vast opening song of Javelin, the tenth studio album from the introspective Michigan songwriter. It’s one of several lines in the song which weighs heavier on the ear in light of Stevens’ recent diagnosis of Guillain–Barré syndrome in September, a condition which has since required him to undergo physical rehabilitation to re-learn to walk.

His new and fourth album, Toil and Trouble out now everywhere via Asthmatic Kitty, is an almost overwhelming piece of beauty and thoughtfulness. Inspired, if you will, by what De Augustine calls the madness of the world and how overwhelming that can be, the fantastic singer, songwriter and producer has crafted a beautiful response to our universal strife. The album is ornately detailed, rich in beauty and scope and one that will leave you reeling hours after you’ve listened.