Madeline Kenney
Perfect Shapes
Release Date: Oct 5, 2018
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Alternative Pop/Rock, Indie Rock, Experimental Rock
Record label: Carpark Records
Music Critic Score
How the Music Critic Score works
Buy Perfect Shapes from Amazon
Album Review: Perfect Shapes by Madeline Kenney
Very Good, Based on 3 Critics
Based on rating 7.5/10
On Perfect Shapes the singer and multi-instrumentalist takes a leap into more textured, clearer waters, replacing the epic sweep of her debut with clean, sharp edges and more space and air. Where 'Night Night…' was arch, 'Perfect Shapes' rattles along at a good old pace, with nods to a host of other contemporaries (Clean Cut Kid on the poppy 'Cut Me Off'; The Staves on 'Know') and a wry sense of humour. The final line of single 'Cut Me Off' ('And don't / cut me off') is deleted as if by a slip of the studio mouse.
Based on rating 7.2/10
"Cut Me Off," an early standout from Perfect Shapes, the second album from art-rock songwriter Madeline Kenney, begins with an order: "Wait," commands a mechanized voice at a crosswalk, counting down the seconds until Kenney can move. But at last, she lashes through the guitar lines that seem to have looped around her legs. "Don't cut me off," the North Carolina-via-West Coast singer counters, establishing rules of her own.
Based on rating 7/10
Following her dreamy, artfully textured debut, 2017's Night Night at the First Landing, by about a year, Perfect Shapes finds a more explorative Madeline Kenney, both stylistically and timbrally. Venturing into bolder indie electronica and time-shifting experimental rock, the album was produced by Wye Oak's Jenn Wasner and features more prominent synths and electronics. Both women played multiple instruments on the record.
'Perfect Shapes'
is available now