Review: Anna von Hausswolff ‘Iconoclasts’

So here we are, the last remaining weeks of 2025, and just when I thought I had wrapped up my top choices of albums for the year, along comes Anna von Hausswolff to completely decimate my already fragile hierarchy entirely.

Now, I always knew that the arrival of Anna’s latest release would end up nestled in the list snuggly somewhere, but I really wasn’t ready to have it swoop in and take the crown with what feels like the minimum of effort.

That isn’t to say that by comparison the rest of my favourites for the year are any lesser entities, but there was no way I could have put this anywhere but in a top slot kind of area, it has blown me away completely. While it isn’t a heavily dense affair, what it actually is a euphoric uprising which comes on like a whirlwind, and will whisk you away.

Right from the offset, I want to clarify how much I love and appreciate Anna’s work. Every new release sees an evolution in concepts, textures, and an overall awareness of scope to fully materialise feelings of such polar extremes. They can take you from excruciating lows to exhilarating highs in the slightest of movements in tone. It is impossible to escape the sheer charm too. There is never a time when I’m not pleasantly surprised when new music appears from an artist who descends far beyond her given genre into a beautiful sonic abyss entirely of their own design.

This time round, with Iconoclasts there is a more euphoric feel to it all. Its gargantuan feel and the sheer magnitude of the project can be felt with every passing moment. It is so overwhelming and large in sound. It is jazzier than previous releases and actually feels lighter throughout. There aren’t as many dark pensive moments, and it feels like there has been an unburdening within.

Throughout the album are a host of additional guest vocalists to help fully realise Anna’s concepts, and while these are beautiful welcome additions, there is one which I personally struggle with. For me, The Whole Woman featuring Iggy Pop places an awkward elbow into it all, and every time I replay the album, it is the track where I, in equal parts, pre-emptively love and loathe its arrival. That isn’t to downplay how exceptional Anna’s performance is, and even if it had only been a solo performance, it would have been more than enough for me.

Elsewhere on the album, there is the addition of saxophone virtuoso Otis Sandsjö to Anna’s eclectic orchestra, and throughout Iconoclasts, his wonderful tones can be heard, either dancing along or exacerbating an intensity in the moment unlike anything else I’ve heard before. Over the course of the twelve tracks, there is never a lull in interest; even quieter moments are as relevant as the huge sweeping flourishes.

Opening with The Beast, which enters with a sonnet that doesn’t as much start things as it does announce the arrival of something otherworldly and totally engulfing. It’s empowering, and at its zenith, you know you are about to witness something altogether majestic.

Emotionally charged and utterly intoxicating, it is a work of genius, majestic art in its purest form…

Facing Atlas, track two, is where things truly unfold, and a pensively joyous opening takes its time rolling in before Anna’s first wondrous vocal comes in. Passionate and powerful, as it builds throughout, it opens into a fully cathartic outpouring. Pulsating as it fills the air, the empowered vocal sets things off to maximum devastation, with a performance the likes of which we have come to love and understand only too well.

Track three, The Iconoclast, ups the ante, and it’s a bumpier ride this time. Heavier in its nature, the rhythmic tribal pulse flows through to make for a spiritually uplifting affair. Simply beautiful, this is the stuff dreams are made of. Emotionally charged and utterly intoxicating, it is a work of genius, majestic art in its purest form.

Stardust has the same kind of feel to it, and throughout the album it’s these tribal, rhythmic passages which I truly believe transform it into a more spiritual affair. There’s a pulsing that can be felt too; it’s powerfully charged, and the feeling it gives deep down inside is one of a ritualistic cleansing. With Aging Young Woman featuring Ethel Cain, the co-vocal harmonising is beautifully soft and sheds more light on Anna’s skills, and I think it’s moments like this which have really caught me this time around.

Consensual Neglect fully embraces all these new elements that have become part of Anna’s world, and even in the absence of vocals, it still says a million words with its sonic monologue. The melding of instruments into one visceral experience is unfathomable.

For me, track nine, Struggle With The Beast, is the epicentre of the whole affair. All roads have led to this as it is the full realisation of how phenomenal an artist Anna really is. Not only in her own musical talent, but also in the arrangement and scale of the overall sound. The piece is vibrant, urgent, and charged, all in one. Its raw emotional intensity can be felt deep inside, and each moment is full of sound which is more than merely filler, and every note is glorious.

From here, there’s no going back, and the remainder of the album consists of a trio of wonderful and beautifully eclectic sonnets. It is especially true on track eleven, Unconditional Love, where the duet with Anna’s sister Maria von Hausswolff has an extra special poignancy. Earth shatteringly beautiful, it’s moments like these where the warmth can be fully embraced. Epic, utterly epic.

For everything I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing musically in 2025, nothing even comes close, Iconoclasts is a truly uplifting, emotional, joyous entity, which is deserving of all the praise it gets. Not just a masterpiece, but a full‑blown, career‑defining masterpiece by a truly magical artist, a shining light in the darkness.

Label: YEAR0001
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Scribed by: Lee Beamish