Album Review: Folly by Kitchens of Distinction

“Under an old oak tree / I found his young body / Took him and his heart inside / Promised him as my bride.” So begins Folly, the new album by Kitchens of Distinction, and it never looks back. Here’s an album filled with deeply personal and provocative lyrics, sung with passion and restraint, stacked upon layers and layers of beautiful noise. It’s a genuine stunner, and the strongest, most breathtaking album I’ve heard all year.

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Throughout the '90's, London-based college rock/shoegaze trio Kitchens of Distinction made four full-length albums, rallying a large cult following but mostly existing in the shadows of other like-minded, more successful bands. Drawing on the ethereal dreaminess of the early 4AD catalog and both the melodrama and pop flair of goth-tinged indie acts like Echo & the Bunnymen or Siouxsie and the Banshees, KoD created a sound marked by tightly wound rhythms, swirling processed guitar, and singer/bassist Patrick Fitzgerald's emotionally naked lyrics. The band officially called it a day in 1996, fizzling out more than imploding, and leaving behind an obscure catalog of work whose sounds would be reflected years later by indie acts like British Sea Power or Interpol.

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Terminally unfashionable and saddled with an especially daft name, One Little Indian stalwarts Kitchens Of Distinction were nonetheless the most cruelly underrated of the late 80s protoshoegazers. The South London trio’s fourth (and best) LP, 1994’s Cowboys And Aliens, was mugged by Britpop, and only their most partisan supporters mourned KOD’s ’96 split after a final 45, Feel My Genie, on Fierce Panda. Yet, remarkably, Folly, their first studio set in 19 years, arrives sounding every bit as vital as it is unexpected.

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