Review Summary: A lustrous and ambitious debut EP from one of LA’s unknown talents.
There’s something about Kinney that just seems otherworldly. Her music unabashedly glistens and gleams, while the structures and atmospheres frequently change course. It’s the kind of art that would be easy to get lost in if it wasn’t so eclectic. It’s not unusual for the songs on her debut EP,
So Glad You Exist, to pivot from wailing synths to ambient acoustic folk with little warning. As the piece shapeshifts, it forms a blissfully meandering electronic indie-pop album that is destined to fly under the radar.
So Glad You Exist eschews traditional pop songwriting, vying instead to achieve an atmosphere worth sinking your ears and mind into. The majority of the time, Kinney’s debut provides a permeable surface for exactly that. The electronics are lush and sublime, and the vocals/instruments sound sunny, warm, and inviting. It’s the perfect album to have summer daydreams to, and the more times you spin it the more it pulls you into its enchanting realm.
Kinney is at her best when she successfully welds her ambitious atmospheric pursuit with graspable melodies – such as the stunning ‘Four Leaf Clover’, which takes a buoyant, catchy rhythm and pairs it with her affinity for effervescent electronic effects and tempo swings (the song ends with a plunge into extremely lo-fi folk balladry).
So Glad You Exist is a feeling out process - as a debut EP rightfully should be - and her ambition manifests in the record's fluidity between genres (elements indie-pop, folk, hip-hop, and electronic music can all be found here). When she’s at her best, Kinney is a creative force occupying a similar space as Imogen Heap: intriguing, a bit strange, but absolutely captivating.
So Glad You Exist is her unearthed gem.
