Review: Kindness - Otherness
By Alainna Marincic, Contributor
[Female Energy; 2014]
Rating: 4.5/10
Key Tracks: “World Restarts,” “Who Do You Love?”
Otherness is the sophomore effort of Kindness, aka Adam Bainbridge. The album is synth pop and a total throwback to the 1980s. Bainbridge calls in a variety of artists to collaborate, including fellow synth popper Devonte Hynes. Like Hynes, Bainbridge utilizes very restrained slow-burn synth. With Hynes these beats are highlighted with extremely emotional, earnest lyrics, which is where Hynes and Bainbridge are different.
Songs like “For the Young” and “It’ll Be Ok” both sound like really good background music; that isn't necessarily a bad thing, except Otherness is filled with good background music. “It’ll Be Ok” is especially egregious in that it is the closing track and ends with a melancholy saxophone solo--sounds like a great idea, but it falls flat.
“Geneva” stands out as the most boring. The song aims for a choral, ethereal effect, but ends up being a tedious mess that just serves as five-minute interlude to the next song.
The tracks with featured artists are much stronger than those without. Swedish singer Robyn lends her vocals to “Who Do You Love?” Robyn bursts into the song with life, granting some more mainstream and accessible pop to this dull album.
“8th Wonder” features a very cool verse from Ghanaian rapper M.anifest. The verse is full of flavor; it even gives a shout out to Tracy Chapman’s classic “Fast Car." This fun little break just makes Bainbridge's less than super lyricism evident.
American singer songwriter Kelela collabortes on two tracks with Bainbridge, “World Restarts” and “With You." Both songs greatly benefit from Kelela’s contributions; a second female vocal adds some interesting tension as opposed to just Bainbridge. “World Restarts” has a funkier beat with elements of African music. Had Bainbridge gone this route for the rest of the album it definitely would have been livelier and it would have set him apart from Hynes.
Bainbridge is obviously a talented producer; Otherness just doesn't have anything to say. Bainbridge comes off like the high school sophomore who just read Catcher in the Rye and wants to say something interesting, but hasn’t experienced enough to say something interesting. It’s frustrating because Otherness has solid beats and production. It just comes across as shallow and it’s also incredibly sad. People will listen to shallow pop. People will listen to sad pop. However, no one wants to listen to pop music that is both shallow and sad.
