Sophia Kennedy - Monsters [LP]

City Slang

£20.14

Format: LP
Catalogue No.: SLANG50341LP
Barcode: 4250506838577
Release Date: 7th May 2021
Genre: Experimental/Electronic

TRACKLISTING:
A1. Animals Will Come
A2. Orange Tic Tac
A3. I Can See You
A4. Francis
A5. Seventeen
A6. Loop
B1. I’m Looking Up
B2. Chestnut Avenue
B3. Do They Know
B4. Cat On My Tongue
B5. Brunswick
B6. Up
B7. Dragged Myself Into The Sun

Sophia Kennedy’s music sometimes sounds like a soundtrack to a world disintegrating, hanging on by a thread of memories, it combines the glamour and the morbid charm of tin pan alley show tunes from the 1960s or 70s and yet it fully embraces the deconstructed modernism of club music. Her new album Monsters, is full of plot twists, moments of prettiness dashed with paranoia. The title itself, is a self-ironic, comic-like commentary of being an artist trying to tame own creations like “monsters” gone wild but also a nod to a generally threatening tension in the world. Monsters is pop music teetering on the verge of ruin.

Kennedy’s creative approach has always been unusual. Growing up in Germany after her family emigrated from Baltimore, she developed an ear for off-centred songcraft picking through her mum’s record collection: Whitney Houston and Simon & Garfunkel at first, Karen Dalton and the Velvet Underground later. With no equipment to hand, she started recording audio on a camcorder, blurring the lines between music and her other passion, film. Obsessed with the work of John Cassavetes and 70s horror films like Carrie, Kennedy moved to Hamburg to study film and ended up making music for theatre productions. Her involvement in the local creative community led her through the doors of the “Golden Pudel”, a techno nightclub. Immersed in Hamburg’s dance music scene she met Mense Reents, a musician best known for his work with the celebrated house act, Die Vögel. The pair formed a writing and production partnership, and would make Sophia’s eponymously-titled debut record together in 2017 which was released through DJ Koze’s label Pampa.

One step further is where Kennedy has taken her sound on Monsters. It’s full of hints of a former life, abstract melodic turns, instrumentation that shouldn't work, but does, wrongness that’s right. “Seventeen” is acid-washed Americana with creeping sub-bass, closer “Dragged Myself Into The Sun” is a full-on left hook, drones stacked like lasagna and pumped with steroids. There is pop centre pieces like “I Can See You” and the velvet-lined anthem “I’m Looking Up”, dealing with grief and death, recalling the rawest edges of Krautrock and, for Kennedy, nods to Baltimore artists Panda Bear and the strange currencies of Animal Collective.

PRESS/ONLINE:

“glorious psych-pop song” – The Guardian

Confirmed press to run: -
New Statesman - Interview feature - w/c 03/05
MOJO - Album review - 20/04/2021
The New Cue - New artist feature - April
Clash - Influences feature - April
HERO - ‘I Can See You’ in playlist - 22/03/2021
The Arts Desk - Album in artsdesk on vinyl - May

Recent highlights
Clash - ‘I Can See You’ video post - 11/03/2021
Beats Per Minute - ‘I Can See You’ video post - 11/03/2021
HERO - ‘Cat On My Tongue’ in playlist - 01/02/2021
God Is In The TV Zine - ‘Cat On My Tongue’ in playlist - 01/02/2021
Our Culture Mag - ‘Cat On My Tongue’ in weekly roundup - 01/02/2021
The Guardian - ‘Cat On My Tongue’ in F&M playlist - 29/01/2021
Clash - Album announcement news - 27/01/2021
Beats Per Minute - Album announcement news - 27/01/2021
Our Culture Mag - Album announcement news - 27/01/2021
Autumn Roses - Album announcement news - 27/01/2021
Beats Per Minute - Anticipated albums of 2021 - 06/01/2021
Beats Per Minute - ‘Orange Tic Tac’ video post - 29/10/2020
16k social media followers in total (500 Insta, 8000 Spotify, 4700 FB)
Playlist highlights: Pitchfork Select , Abgehört (Spiegel.de), NPR Radio

OTHER ACTIVITY: https://cityslang.com/

Spotify: 40k monthly listeners