Artist.......: Kisses
Album........: Kids in la
Label........: Splendour
Genre........: Indie
Catnr........: n/a
source.......: CDDA
rip.date.....: Aug-08-2013
str.date.....: 2013
quality......: VBR/44.1Hz/Joint-Stereo
Url..........: n/a
track title time
01. Up All Night 03:38
02. The Hardest Part 04:19
03. Huddle 04:34
04. At the Pool 03:55
05. Funny Heartbeat 04:16
06. Air Conditioning 03:58
07. Having Friends Over 04:07
08. Bruins 04:27
09. Adjust Glasses 03:56
Runtime 37:10 min
Size 67,6 MB
Release Notes:
Following 2010's The Heart of the Nightlife, which
celebrated the inherent "I Love Us" factor of a
couple making music together, Kisses' now-engaged
Jesse Kivel and Zinzi Edmundson are taking a more
thoughtful turn on their second album. Inspired in
part by Bret Easton Ellis' Less Than Zero, Kids in
L.A. follows a group of rich Bel Air teenagers
suffering from Los Angeles' mid-winter ennui. "I've
been unbalanced over my time at the pool," Kivel
sings in one of the album's many "The O.C."-worthy
moments. Like cloud cover on what moments ago was a
sunny day, the honeymoon froth and bounce of
Kisses' debut have been subsumed by moody bass
lines and the angst of privileged teens. While it's
admirable that Kisses turned their puppy dog-eyes
outward, their attempt at social commentary
ultimately feels half-hearted.
Part of the problem is due to location, or at least
their attitude toward it. "L.A. is so sunny it is
often hard to find profound moments in the
weather," Kivel said in an interview a few years
ago. On Kids in L.A., Kisses seem to have
internalized this off-the-cuff remark; instead of
engaging with the abuse of privilege they claim as
an influence in a meaningful way, they avoid it
altogether. The biggest concerns of Kisses'
protagonists are, in no particular order, sitting
around in a bathrobe and drinking coffee and orange
juice ("Up All Night"), figuring out how to drive
to the record store ("Air Conditioning"), and
finding love in a "Western world" ("Adjust
Glasses"). One of them falls asleep in his father's
suit under the kitchen sink. These high school kids
aren't just pampered, they're boring. Kivel didn't
want to pass judgment on the people he grew up
alongside, but compelling character sketches-- the
kind that made Frank Ocean's "Super Rich Kids" so
spot-on-- require a sense of humor and a judgmental
streak, neither of which have ever been Kisses'
strong suits.
Kisses are still pretty good at hooks, though, and
they're even better with Saint Etienne's Pete Wiggs
and his regular collaborator Tim Larcombe as
co-producers. Wiggs applies the brooding energy
behind his remix of "People Can Do the Most Amazing
Things" to details like the guitar line on
"Huddle", which ripples like disturbed water. The
luxurious urgency that Larcombe brought to his work
with Lana Del Rey is tempered here by crisply gated
snares reminiscent of Lisa Lisa and Debbie Deb,
whom Kivel cites as rhythmic touchstones for Kids
in L.A. You can hear these two threads in the
album's disenchanted funk vibe, but "Having Friends
Over" is the most effective combination of them.
Pumping with dancefloor bends and snaps, the
yearning, gloomy atmosphere makes it one of the
first songs Kisses have made that warrants repeated
listens-- even if it involves a girl, a knife, and
the phrase "grip the tip."
The best song on Kids in L.A. is "Funny Heartbeat",
which happens to fall precisely in the middle (the
heart, in case you didn't get it) of the album.
It's also the one that sounds most similar to The
Heart of the Nightlife, except it's a step above
thanks to the heightened production value: Kivel
once again revels in his uncanny Jens Lekman
impression, harmonizing with Edmundson and soaring
above the handclaps, hand drums, and shimmering
melody. With that one song, Kisses suggest that
they can make more than an album's worth of music
about their first blush of romance, and that it
sounds better than any other thematic concepts they
might come up with.