Album Review: SINNER GET READY - Lingua Ignota

Kristin Hayter quickly took the world by storm when she began releasing music under her mysterious Lingua Ignota alias. The classically-trained multi-instrumentalist immediately carved out her own sub-genre of dystopian, apocalyptic drone music with religious conventions and frequent themes of pain and infidelity. I was introduced to Hayter’s work after the release of her sophomore album CALIGULA, which featured a tracklist riddled with pain, openness, and healing from previous abusive relationships. That work was spectacular in its own right, and it left me wondering which direction Hayter would take her work next. Her newest album SINNER GET READY brings the hymnal and religious undertones from her prior work to the forefront, commenting on organized religion’s potential to cause either great good or great harm in the world. Hayter is also able to universalize these criticisms and observations for a wider audience, but that isn’t to say that this album is accessible. Instead, Hayter fully embodies the Lingua Ignota moniker with a dreadful, cathartic, and haunting masterpiece on SINNER GET READY.

Hayter uses religious lyricism, instrumentation, and references to establish these themes early on in the tracklisting. Pairing the recognizable sound of beautiful organs with anguished and brash delivery on the track “I WHO BENDS THE TALL GRASS” leaves me so moved and uncomfortable, like many of the tracks here, that SINNER GET READY becomes an album I won’t listen to on a whim. This track comments on the tendency for religious devotees to feel entitled to supernatural intervention just from claiming adherence and belief in a higher power. This aggressive demanding of course falls on deaf ears, leaving the audience in awe of the brutality of this all-too-common phenomenon when many expect whatever they want from their divine being of choice.

Hayter’s intentionality and attention to detail are demonstrated on tracks such as “MANY HANDS”, which directly references her debut album. The repetition of the disturbing and visual imagery employed here, paired with an uneasy and droning instrumental backing, is truly terrifying. Not every track is this sonically draining, though, as others such as “PENNSYLVANIA FURNACE” and “PERPETUAL FLAME OF CENTRALIA” burden only their piercing lyrics with the weight and impact that the rest of the tracks make up for with their stomach-churning production. Instead, these tracks reflect on dark topics like the inevitability of suffering, judgment, and loneliness, with angelic pianos and wonderful vocal harmonies that allow Hayter to show off her classical training. “REPENT NOW CONFESS NOW” is a brilliantly written track that comments on the impermanence of the human body, which is clearly religious in nature, but allows Hayter to discuss the many emotions felt before a very important surgery she had recently.

Hayter may have a complicated relationship with organized religion, but that doesn’t stop her from pointing out its many shortcomings and hypocrisies. “THE SACRED LINAMENT OF JUDGEMENT” features the voice of an evangelist who has been discovered indulging in prostitution. The closing track “THE SOLITARY BRETHREN OF EPHRATA” features the now infamous news clip of a woman claiming immunity from COVID-19 because she was “covered in Jesus’s blood,” which is problematic in too many ways to discuss here. These criticisms are often masked in organized religion’s most compelling conventions, however, such as that same closing track’s beautiful hymnal delivery and composition. Hayter is capable of creating beautiful music when she pleases, just as easily as she can create haunting and lasting representations of the dreadful emotions she often discusses.

If Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders, and The London Symphony Orchestra’s Promises from earlier this year is the music equivalent of Heaven, SINNER GET READY is as apt of a depiction of Hell as possible, but in the best ways. Kristin Hayter’s “Lingua Ignota” persona has served her purpose with her nearly flawless three-album discography. SINNER GET READY is the tormented counterpart to the blissful Promises, which is the only album I’ve given a perfect score this year. I can’t wait to recommend people to not listen to this, but instead just to know how much I enjoyed and appreciated it. Hallelujah.

Favorite tracks: All

SCORE: 9/10