Kindness
Something Like a War
Release Date: Sep 6, 2019
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock
Record label: Female Energy
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Album Review: Something Like a War by Kindness
Very Good, Based on 4 Critics
Based on rating 8/10
"I just want to cry everything" is the rallying call of Adam Bainbridge's gorgeous third record as Kindness—which argues for tears as a defiant show of strength rather than surrender. Three years ago, Bainbridge was close to quitting music after becoming increasingly disillusioned with the politics of the industry. Yet Something Like a War finds Kindness in a surprisingly combative mood underneath its elegant exterior.
Based on rating 7/10
Five years and many collaborations after their last album, Adam Bainbridge has re-emerged under the Kindness moniker, with the empowering, dance-focused Something Like a War. Bainbridge uses their own voice along — with those of a range of powerful, evocative singers, such as Sampha and Jazmine Sullivan — to serve the songs instead of centering a narrative on themself. Mixed by the late Philippe Zdar, Something Like a War is instilled with his signature vitality, the record's house rhythms underlying tracks that explore the many ….
Based on rating 6.5/10
Though Adam Bainbridge, the British producer who records as Kindness, hasn't released a record in five years, they remain quietly influential. Their credits aren't extensive, but they are consistent, and Bainbridge's handiwork is on some of the decade's most gorgeous songs: Solange's "Cranes in the Sky," several tracks on Blood Orange's Cupid Deluxe and Freetown Sound, and Robyn's simmering nostalgia reverie "Send to Robin Immediately." In 2012, the brushed-chrome polish of their arrangements set World, You Need a Change of Mind a little off the popular pulse; now the sound is everywhere. Like all of Kindness's work, Something Like a War is produced with deceptively invisible skill.
Based on rating 3/5
Adam Bainbridge returns in 2019 with 'Something Like A War', their third full LP as Kindness after five years spent working closely with the likes of Solange, Blood Orange and Robyn. The latter appears here on a total of four tracks, as do a variety of collaborators ranging from Sampha, to Swedish singer Seinabo Sey and South African musicians Samthing Soweto and Vuyo Sotashe. With such an eclectic consortium of styles making up this record the results are, unsurprisingly, varied.
'Something Like a War'
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