Claude says:LaValle sat on two hundred demos for seven years before releasing this in 2023, working the film-scoring discipline he'd picked up since Between Waves back into The Album Leaf — darker, more synth-forward, with guests like Bat For Lashes and Kimbra threading through. You grabbed it right at release and spent a few months with the title track and "Dust Collects" before it drifted off your rotation by early 2024.