{"title":"Madeline Kenney","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"night-night-at-the-first-landing","title":"Night Night At The First Landing","description":"\u003cp\u003eDebut album from \u003cstrong\u003eMadeleine Kenney\u003c\/strong\u003e released on Chaz Bear's (\u003cstrong\u003eToro Y Moi\u003c\/strong\u003e) Company Records. Madeline Kenney begins her new album with a helpful reminder: \u003cem\u003e“Don’t forget, there’s room for you.”\u003c\/em\u003e The declaration is meant to lay to rest unnecessary competition. The universe is pretty large. It’s a fitting welcome to Kenney’s debut full-length, \u003cem\u003eNight Night At The First Landing\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe record is framed by meditative, repetitive recordings that each offer some kind of encouragement. \u003cem\u003e“Don't you worry about a thing, you're fine.”\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cem\u003e“I won't give up on anything now.”\u003c\/em\u003e The trip on \u003cem\u003eNight Night\u003c\/em\u003e is deciding whether the narrator is full of confidence or talking to themselves privately.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eKenney began working on the record immediately after completing her first EP, 2016’s \u003cem\u003eSignals\u003c\/em\u003e. As with \u003cem\u003eSignals\u003c\/em\u003e, Company Records label head Chaz Bundick (\u003cstrong\u003eToro Y Moi\u003c\/strong\u003e) was on hand as producer, but with Kenney as the arranger and key creative force, \u003cem\u003eNight Night\u003c\/em\u003e reveals more of the artist.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eKenney wrote and arranged all the songs and tracked most of the instruments at home. The album is unavoidably dreamy, dipping into sweet fuzz while usually sailing through smooth, crystalline production. The songs are about people, and though people sometimes disappoint, this record is meant to comfort. Fall into it and imagine the clouds scooping you up, or the changing tide’s ripples gliding you past a gentle moon’s new reflection.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eCD - 4 Panel Digipak With Tray. LP - Purple Vinyl \/ Lyric Sheet Insert \/ Includes Digital Download.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Company","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50471422558539,"sku":"1013726","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":50471422689611,"sku":"1013727","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/41c2e2c3-d320-4e1f-ab6a-fbbb8c8d85e8_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727402200"},{"product_id":"perfect-shapes","title":"Perfect Shapes","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn January of 2018, five months after the release of her debut album \u003cem\u003eNight Night at the First Landing\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cstrong\u003eMadeline Kenney\u003c\/strong\u003e traveled from Oakland, California to the woods outside of Durham, North Carolina to record her sophomore album with a new collaborator, Wye Oak’s \u003cstrong\u003eJenn Wasner\u003c\/strong\u003e. The choice was a conscious decision to explore new methodology in writing, recording, production, and even genre.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePerfect Shapes\u003c\/em\u003e sees Kenney leaping headfirst into fresh and adventurous territory, largely eschewing conventional rock structures in favor of theme and melody. Its ten songs are full of surprises big and small - from vibrant synth lines to taut bass figures and subtly modulated vocals - that instead of feeling fussed over, reveal Kenney’s penchant for elegant and abstract composition.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eKenney’s 2017 debut, \u003cem\u003eNight Night at the First Landing\u003c\/em\u003e, was a guitar-centric rock album, produced by friend and collaborator Chaz Bear of Toro Y Moi. \u003cem\u003ePerfect Shapes\u003c\/em\u003e leans on the foundational pieces of \u003cem\u003eNight Night\u003c\/em\u003e - fuzzed-out guitar tones, coy wordplay, and Kenney’s notably strong voice - but with an unconventional approach that allows them to bloom, reincarnated.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePerfect Shapes\u003c\/em\u003e marks Wasner’s first foray into producing another artist’s work and is permeated by the pair’s collaborative spirit. Both Wasner and Kenney play multiple instruments on the record and engineered the session alongside Kenney’s touring percussionist, Camille Lewis.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAn eagerness to explore and experiment is apparent from start to finish, as Kenney and Wasner weave endless sonic curveballs into the arrangements. From the delightfully warped percussion on opening track \u003cq\u003eOverhead\u003c\/q\u003e to the burbling synths on the R\u0026amp;B-tinted \u003cq\u003eThe Flavor of the Fruit Tree\u003c\/q\u003e and the left-field trumpet solo in \u003cq\u003eYour Art\u003c\/q\u003e, these rich and inventive ideas echo Yo La Tengo’s everything-but-the-kitchen-sink mentality, as well as the surging soundscapes of Tame Impala and Wye Oak at their most impressionistic.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eLead single \u003cq\u003eCut Me Off\u003c\/q\u003e is a surprise of its own - the most pop-forward song Kenney has written yet. \u003cq\u003eBad Idea\u003c\/q\u003e finds her balancing fragility as foil; later, \u003cq\u003eI Went Home\u003c\/q\u003e manages to evoke both frustration and affection in a single breath.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eLP - Colored Coke Bottle Green Vinyl with Download and 12x12” Lyric Sheet \/ Liner Note Insert.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Carpark","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50471750041931,"sku":"1043753","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":50471752499531,"sku":"1043754","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/b0ae8ae2-1e8d-45ad-9540-341f0cfac343_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727411434"},{"product_id":"sucker-s-lunch","title":"Sucker's Lunch","description":"\u003cp\u003eOakland artist Madeline Kenney bounds toward the unknown on her third album, \u003ci\u003eSucker’s Lunch\u003c\/i\u003e, expanding on the idea of what a love song could be – a little more cautious than\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eexuberant, more nuanced than blazing devotion. Sonically, the album expands upon Kenney’s\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eearlier, guitar-driven sound – a definitive step forward from an artist adept at communicating\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003euniversal sentiments in a voice unmistakably her own. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTo help realize her vision, Kenney once again enlisted Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack, previous collaborators and friends. Together, the trio carefully constructed the songs in a few compact sessions in Oakland, San Francisco, and Durham. Stack and Wasner’s rhythm section trace circles around Kenney’s off-kilter guitar, with verdant curls of synths, saxophone, and complex harmonies. Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner lends his distinctive tenor to lead single \u003ci\u003eSucker.\u003c\/i\u003e The resulting songs are immediate and deeply moving, somehow feeling familiar while they defy expectations at every turn. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThematically, \u003ci\u003eSucker’s Lunch\u003c\/i\u003e sees Kenney soberly contrasting the risks and rewards of falling in love, eventually deciding to dive headfirst into her own foolishness and relish in the unknowing. The tracks explore new love from every angle – \u003ci\u003ePicture of You\u003c\/i\u003e is a soundtrack- worthy lamentation of never truly knowing what someone has been through (“growing up is so hard, I don’t know why”) while tender vulnerability shines on \u003ci\u003eTell You Everything\u003c\/i\u003e (“When your eyes say ‘we’ve had a day, love’, I get to fall in”). Kenney audibly loses her mind on \u003ci\u003eDouble Hearted\u003c\/i\u003e, where the playful arrangement and lyrics spark a firestorm of heartache and wild abandon. \u003ci\u003eCut The Real\u003c\/i\u003e pairs synth drones with syncopated lyrics to work through a depressive mind state, and the near-devotional \u003ci\u003eWhite Window Light\u003c\/i\u003e accepts uncertainty as a beautiful gift.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Carpark","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50473076359499,"sku":"1094108","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50473077702987,"sku":"1094107","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/1b349e88-0fbb-4a83-9c1c-806953ec5d5f_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727426382"},{"product_id":"a-new-reality-mind","title":"A New Reality Mind","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn the quiet surrounding the pandemic, Madeline Kenney made sonic sketches in the basement studio she shared with her then-partner. She arranged phrases that called her - the sharp knife of a synth cutting a path along a blooming arpeggio, drums stuttering firm and tight. Working this way, she amassed a collection of songs she had no particular aims for. Some formed her 2021 EP Summer Quarter, others languished.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut in 2022, Kenney’s partner left suddenly and without warning, plunging her into the solitary act of untangling what happened. In the wake of her ensuing depression, she revisited these songs and found in them something prescient. She’d already laid the foundation for \u003ci\u003eA New Reality Mind\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThat her relationship’s end came without warning is only half true, though. The warnings were in the feelings and fears that inspired Kenney’s critically-acclaimed third album, \u003ci\u003eSucker’s Lunch\u003c\/i\u003e (2020), which was co-produced by Jenn Wasner (Flock of Dimes) and centered around the idea of flinging oneself freely into the seemingly-assured destruction of new love, come what may.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIf sonically \u003ci\u003eSucker’s Lunch\u003c\/i\u003e was letting yourself be pulled into the warm bath of a good story, \u003ci\u003eA New Reality Mind\u003c\/i\u003e reflects the harsh light of truth coming to break the spell. But as sobering as morning light can be, there’s brilliance to it, too. To see in the clarity of day is a gift. A revolution. Rather than reckoning with love lost, the songs on \u003ci\u003eA New Reality Mind\u003c\/i\u003e grapple with the self that chose to fall. “I guess I only needed to look twice \/ Reflected in my attitude, my constant compromise,” Kenney sings on “Red Emotion,” the musical landscape screeching and gasping around her observations of how she made herself small to keep the dream of love alive.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThese notions of sight and vision pervade the record as Kenney stands before the infinity mirror of selves she’s been to preserve bonds in her life. On “I Drew a Line,” Kenney contends with the stories she’s told herself to keep plodding along, and the way those stories shape her perceived reality. She invokes John Berger’s Ways of Seeing—“Everything around the image is part of its meaning,” we hear him say. “Everything around it confirms and consolidates its meaning.” Here, Kenney isn’t interested in shaming herself for being carried away by the fantasies of the heart, but rather in investigating the unavoidably human propensity to do so. “I, like everyone else, am muddling through my most ordinary disaster of a life,” she acknowledges, a sentiment which reverberates through album opener “Plain Boring Disaster.” “I don’t need to start again,” she sings at the song’s close. “But I can change when it ends.” We may all be doomed to repetitive, ordinary heartbreaks, Kenney realizes, but at least we can cultivate a capacity to witness our missteps and build new realities for ourselves.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is Kenney’s most expansive work, while also her most solitary. Produced and recorded alone in her basement, these songs are manifestations of what it feels like to be transformed by pain. Textures collide and collude; sonic ornaments emerge and dissipate capriciously; saxophones soar untamed, as on the 80s pop elegy to self-sacrifice, “Reality Mind”. These songs beg you to dance, then pull the rug out from under you once you’ve caught the beat, leaving you dizzy like the whiplash of love’s end.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut in the propulsive power of \u003ci\u003eA New Reality Mind\u003c\/i\u003e, there’s also acceptance, self-forgiveness, and a willingness to move forward into life, with all its ways of making a sucker of you. “That way of living, I’m over it,” Kenney declares of the habits that hold her back on “Superficial Conversation”. “I do not need to be reminded of what I did,” she assures, the song opening wide and beaming, like a smile expanding to taste a new breath of air.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor fans of Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Jenny Hval and Liz Fraser.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Carpark","offers":[{"title":"Orange LP","offer_id":50483053920587,"sku":"2024893","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50483053003083,"sku":"2024892","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/A_New_Reality_Mind_7170ac75_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727560512"},{"product_id":"a-new-reality-mind-4","title":"A New Reality Mind","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe latest release from California indie rock singer-songwriter Madeline Kenney A New Reality Mind is an exploration of their newfound pop-driven style. “Writing is one of the only ways I can access the honest, subconscious truth”, Kenney says. “Writing has been an important way to process the difficult times she’s been going through. Whether it’s writing fiction or music, painting. Whatever unlocks your flow state is a really great gateway to a lot of honesty. So, I’ve found some sadness in that, but I’ve also found a little bit of power in that, too.”\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Vinyl Me Please","offers":[{"title":"Blue LP","offer_id":50496229015883,"sku":"2225276","price":34.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/test_eed952d5_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727718652"},{"product_id":"kiss-from-the-balcony","title":"Kiss From The Balcony","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eKiss from the Balcony\u003c\/strong\u003e is what happens when three musicians become enamored with one another’s musical abilities and shared curiosities. 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The lyrical themes of solitude, idealized romance, resentment, and womanhood are supporting actors to the main theme: collaboration allows an idea to grow to its fullest potential and take flight.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Carpark","offers":[{"title":"LP - Red Rose","offer_id":51689903751499,"sku":"R6992-6620","price":26.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":51689903718731,"sku":"R6992-8985","price":11.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/CAK182CD_5a6b6182-9986-46fa-b56e-d912dd43c678.jpg?v=1752237435"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/collections\/madeline-kenney.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}