Album Review: Off Off On by This Is the Kit

Under the banner of This Is the Kit, Britain's Kate Stables has amassed an impressive catalog of thoughtful, sometimes idiosyncratic folk songs whose winding melodies are often set to spiky rhythms and offbeat time signatures. After breaking out with 2015's Aaron Dessner-produced Bashed Out, she found a home on the Rough Trade label, which helped raise her profile even higher with 2017's winsome Moonshine Freeze. Off Off On, This Is the Kit's fifth album overall, finds Stables and her crew working alongside New York-based producer Josh Kaufman (Bonny Light Horseman, Muzz) on another warmly literate and subtly complex collection, essentially picking up where its predecessor left off.

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Kate Stables had already recorded the fifth This Is The Kit album before lockdown arrived, but it feels well placed to provide comfort to those in need through the ongoing restricted world we currently live in. In this respect the title, Off Off On, is rather uncanny, reflecting life as it fluctuates from stage to stage, tier to tier. The album takes us on a journey via warm melodies and spoonfuls of sleepy, mindful music.

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Kate Stables’ project This Is the Kit follows 2017’s outstanding Moonshine Freeze with another impressive outing on Off Off On. Though Stables spent a fair chunk of 2019 traveling with The National in vocal support of their I Am Easy to Find tour and here attracts the ubiquitous Josh Kaufman (Muzz, Bonny Light Horseman) to produce, the core of her band has remained the same. What changes this time out is that the front two-thirds of the album is a tautly woven tapestry of sounds and challenging conversations, both internal and external.

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