Review of Volta

Following three thematically stringent efforts, the Icelandic sound sorceress loosens up and lets her imagination run wild. As it unfolds, Volta’s hodge-podge of moods and materials echoes every stage of her career, and her collaborators (including Timbaland, Antony, Konono No.1, pipa player Min Xiao-Fen and drummers from Sunburned Hand and Lightning Bolt) are likewise literally all over the map—“Can you spot a pattern? /Relentlessly restless,” she sings in “Wanderlust.” Lyrically, the personal and political bleed into one another, and angry assertions of the essential, bone-deep commonality of our species recur throughout.

9/10