Editor’s Note: From Albumism’s inception back in 2016, we’ve remained unabashedly and unequivocally passionate about our mission of celebrating the world's love affairs with albums past, present and future.
But while our devotion to the album as an art form has remained steadfast, as evidenced by our deepening repository of individual album tributes and reviews, we’ve admittedly seldom taken the opportunity to explicitly articulate our reverence for the virtues of artists’ complete album repertoires as a whole.
Hence why we’ve decided to showcase what we believe to be the most dynamic discographies of all time in this recurring series. In doing so, we hope to better understand the broader creative context within which our most beloved individual albums exist, while acknowledging the full breadth of their creators’ artistry, career arcs, and overall contributions to the ever-evolving musical landscape.
We hope you enjoy this series and be sure to check here periodically for the latest installments.
DUNCAN SHEIK
Studio Albums: Duncan Sheik (1996) | Humming (1998) | Phantom Moon (2001) | Daylight (2002) | White Limousine (2006) | Whisper House (2009) | Covers 80s (2011) | Legerdemain (2015)
Duncan Sheik’s catalog is so much more than what his best-known song—“Barely Breathing” from his 1996 self-titled debut album—portends. Throughout Sheik’s eclectic albums, you hear the artistic tug between the intimate Nick Drake-inspired singer-songwriter side of himself (2001’s Phantom Moon) and his love of emotive eighties synth-pop (2015’s Legerdemain).
Travel through his eight studio efforts and you’ll discover that Sheik is a true album artist who’s driven to construct layered LPs where brash pop songs (“Bite Your Tongue” from 1998’s Humming) share real estate with hushed and ruminative acoustic and string-laden offerings (Humming’s “Varying Degrees of Con Artistry”).
Sheik has never been shy about the late Drake’s influence on his own songwriting. He calls out the British singer-songwriter/musician on “That Says It All” from Humming, he titled Phantom Moon after Drake’s 1972 album Pink Moon, and Sheik’s expansive greatest hits anthology Brighter/Later (2006) is just a few switched letters away from the title of Drake’s 1971 release, Bryter Layter.
There are times in Sheik’s catalog when he’ll surprise you with a laid-back prog-rock inspired excursion (see the combo final track of “Shine In”/“Chimera” from 2002’s Daylight). Then there’s the mature, unexpected collaborative album with lyricist, poet and future Spring Awakening creative partner Steven Sater (Phantom Moon). Or Sheik’s Covers 80s album, released in 2011, where he reimagined eighties synth pop songs from bands like Depeche Mode, Talk Talk and The Psychedelic Furs by eliminating percussion instruments.
For those venturing into Sheik’s catalog for the first time, you’ve arrived at the right time. In a recent interview with American Songwriter, Sheik revealed that his latest release, the concert album Live At The Cafe Carlyle (2020), might just cap off the first part of his career. “I think I’m getting to something that’s new and exciting for me that’s sort of a new aesthetic or a new approach,” Sheik explained. He added that the live album is sort of a coda, “like putting a little period on part of my career, and now I start the next part.”
Mark’s 3 Favorite Duncan Sheik Albums of All Time:
1. Humming (1998)
2. Phantom Moon (2001)
3. White Limousine (2006)
LISTEN & WATCH: