Madeline Kenney - Sucker’s Lunch Review
Over the journey of Sucker’s Lunch Kenney effectively self-evaluates, uniquely communicating universal feelings
Madeline Kenney out of Oakland, California, has released her third album Sucker’s Lunch and it sounds to have earned her a place at the indie dream pop table. Here there's fresh ingredients in vocal versatility, finely cut layers of melody and some perfectly seasoned guitar. This isn't an ordinary afternoon bite, this is a Sucker's Lunch.
Over the course of the meal several discussions take place: lamentation and rumination on decisions and life choices; romance and the ugly; and the beauty of falling in love. Musically, the support from Wye Oak's Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack perfectly compliment Kenney's rambles, with evocative melodies to compliment and strong rhythms to maintain a strong base to the unexpected avenues Kenney explores.
Lead single and main course 'Sucker' is a quintessential slower indie pop song, with glistening guitar lines and soft rhythm throughout, offset with a vocal weave between Kenney's self-reflection and Kurt Wagner's borrowed tenor crawling from the depths to add further complexity with deeply moving results. The emotional crux of the album passes into ‘Double Hearted’, a musically joyous celebration of silliness, ready to be played in a children's playground as well as emotional treatment for adults, remaining evaluative in its calls to “fuck up the garden”. 'Jenny' brings out a pure pop vocal reminiscent of Taylor Swift with a cute riff tickling in the background. For a chorus, it drops into a brooding callout for “Jenny”; it’s a chorus evoking Big Thief’s 2019 track ‘Jenni’ which could’ve been functionally the same muse were it not for the different spelling.
There are a number of tracks that sadly feel unmatched to their potential. Opening track "Sugar Sweat" immediately grabs us with a vibrating, curling riff and a looming Angel Olsen-esque vocal, with desire-laden lyrics. It progresses with a building, longing harmony and then it just stops. Two of the best minutes of the album that should have continued for another four. Similarly 'Tell You Everything' moves through breaths and "oohs" of desperation and striking twanging strings before a final ten seconds of quickening and unsettling crashes which should progress into a crescendo of noise but, again, stop too soon. ‘Cut the Real’ is a softer number, working as one of the more emotionally accessible tracks but we don’t get the opportunity to bathe in it for long enough. In 'Picture of You', an altogether decent track, Kenney sets up a relaxed atmosphere for evaluating the amount of the work going into a relationship. Kenney at one point tells the subject that she "showed a picture of you to my mum, and she cried" whether intended to mean her subject is utterly captivating or fundamentally hated, it's too unbelievable and throws us out of the atmosphere. For the remainder of the track it becomes difficult to lay back in and recompose ourselves.
The closing three tracks are a little less punchy and immediate, but they are three of the more experimental turns. ‘Be The Man’ is in two halves, the first creeping open with a cross between a Western soundtrack and Humbug era Arctic Monkeys and the second seeing Kenney channel Stevie Nicks as the song flows in and out of power pop. ‘White Window Light’ features a deflated Kenney before a harmonious choir joins, assisting her between uplifting chorus and hovering flutes before bringing us back from the edge and to the window to bask in light. ‘Sweet’ uses light piano strokes against contrasting background sounds reminiscent of distant power tools to show Kenney at her most vulnerable, morphing into a bobbing track which wouldn’t be out of place at a jazz cafe.
Over the journey of Sucker’s Lunch Kenney effectively self-evaluates, uniquely communicating universal feelings. Sonically the album moves unexpectedly with a wide variety of vocal styles and melodies, grabbing hooks and gorgeous guitar lines. The meal was delicious and the company was great, it's just a shame some of the courses ended so abruptly.