By: Chip McCabe
Do you believe in the ‘meant to be’ of life? Do you believe that serendipity is a playful minx often dabbling in the lives of the every man? After listening to the debut album from Northampton, MA’s And The Kids you should. How else to explain that two friends from the 7th grade meet their combined musical soul mate in their travels years later to form an absolute indie rock powerhouse? And The Kids made music. And The Kids lived happily ever after, followed by hordes of bouncing, dancing, smiling souls searching for music that plays with their heart like a kitten with a ball of string.
“Let us take off our pants and we’ll argue less…”
Even when evoking feelings of loneliness and anxiety in their lyrics And The Kids never lose that sort of glittery, jangly indie pop vibe that seems to always float mere feet above the sombre river of life itself. Like that famous Renaissance cherub that seems to be eternally smirking at some inside joke that none of us will ever get, And The Kids seem to have some sort of inside knowledge on life itself and they are fully prepared to dangle it in front of us while we bop our heads and tap our feet endlessly. Such old souls, these young ladies, tip-toeing through the musical fields of Dionysus while wielding instruments of mass instruction.
Turn To Each Other is an eleven-song romp through a veritable smorgasbord of influences and a rainbow-like pantheon of emotions. From the powerful, rabble-rousing anthem “No Countries” to the light-hearted skip of album opener “Pangea” to the mesmerizing darkness of “Cats Were Born,” And The Kids don’t stay in one place for too long. Musically they’re like that person you have in your life who always has one bag packed in the back of their closet ready to escape to the next phase of life at the drop of a hat. (You were a good friend, a good lay, a good shoulder to cry on, but it’s time to clear out. Hope you’ve learned what you needed to learn while you had the chance to learn it.) They are sonic ramblers, virtual vagabonds, swimming effortlessly down stream to the where indie rock, indie pop, new wave, chamber folk, and classic alt rock all mingle together on the rocks as the waves lap away what differences ever existed.
“I’ve been playing in dirty water. I forgot how to wash my sins…”
To say that And The Kids’ debut album is a revelation is an understatement. The infectious harmonies, the moments of somewhat atonal musicality, the defiantly obsequious bombast duct taped and hog-tied to the inherent tintinnabulation of indie pop’s essence is enough to make you find a sonic altar to worship this album upon. There is no doubt whatsoever that by the time this album is fully digested by the underground music buying populace that And The Kids will be elevated to levels of reverence deserving of a wider net being cast. And cast it will be. For example, does not Wes Anderson need new and poignant music for his new and poignant films? He would be wise to find it in the likes of this band and these songs. Few bands have cut such a wide swath through the human emotional gamut, and done so with such a whimsical flair.
Turn To Each Other is out now on Signature Sounds records and can be experienced first hand at the Signature Sounds Bandcamp page.
Lonesome Noise 