Allegra Krieger

Art of the Unseen Infinity Machine, Allegra Krieger's second full-length album with Double Double Whammy, is a collection of 12 songs that pick at the fragile membrane between life and death. The titular ‘infinity machine,’ as Krieger puts it, “is an accumulation of interlocking forces that propel humanity forward through a persistent passage of time.” Krieger’s previous album, I Keep My Feet on the Fragile Plane, hewed more closely to the domestic spaces of city and mind. Rolling Stone regarded the album as “ten songs of heady philosophical meanderings packed with emotional dynamite,” and likened her “finely phrased lyrics” to those of “Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, [and] David Berman.” Krieger’s existential meditations remain on Art of the Unseen Infinity Machine, however her meandering melodies have taken on a stronger sense of direction. She narrates candidly and assertively; the full-band arrangements never overpower, only offer a robust platform on which Krieger’s voice reaches new heights. Krieger describes her newest work as “more outward looking, more questioning. These songs,” she says, “are obviously extremely personal. But they also sucked the whole world in.”