Penfriend – Exotic Monsters 
Release Date: 21st May 2021
I made the mistake of reading
Laura Kidd’s list of achievements before reviewing this and now I feel terribly
inadequate about what I’ve done with my life. However, the great thing about
Kidd – the mastermind behind Penfriend – is that she never has an air of haughtiness
or superiority, preferring to focus on the work and the inclusivity that
creativity affords us. This is the first album under the Penfriend moniker, but
it is perfect for where we are right now as a world and a culture.
The album opens with recent
single and title track ‘Exotic Monsters’ which sets the scene with it’s
synthetic dystopian landscape emerging from the smog as a warning of what’s to
come. ‘Seventeen’, by contrast, is more of a kick ass indie-rock anthem with
elements of Belly, Veruca Salt and the Cooper Temple Clause all running through
this anthemic track. The third member of this opening trio is ‘Hell Together’
which has a brooding riff and ominous beat underpinning Kidd’s unblinking vocal
that doles out home truth after home truth as you take the slow escalator down
to Hades.
The Numan-esque sinister synth squelch
of ‘I Used To Know Everything’ is both haunting and beautiful but as the song
builds up you start to see the real kernel of this song appear from behind all
the armour and lasers. The alarmingly titled ‘Dispensable Body’ is a dreamy 80s-indie
inspired ballad while ‘Seashaken’ leads with a piano melody and soulful but sad
vocals which give this the feel of Kate Bush guesting on a Fleetwood Mac track.
The hypnotic vocal harmonies at the start of ‘Loving Echoes’ feel like a Hot
Chip track before the song evolves into something which is layered, ethereal
and quite possibly from the future (the one where we survive but music has been
driven underground by an authoritarian government).
The wonderful thing about this
album is that Penfriend keeps you guessing with quick switches on style, tempo
and vibe. ‘I’ll Start A Fire’ is a great example of this with its Hole-meets-Lush
vibe and grungy guitars that hark back to the She Makes War days of Kidd’s
career. ‘Cancel Your Hopes’ keeps this vibe going with urgent guitars paired
with impatient drums and a keyboard melody with a short attention span like Maximo
Park and Young Knives writing film music in a dark basement surrounded by neon
and mushrooms. The pace slows on ‘Long Shadows’ but the sinister film noir
energy is turned up a few notches before ‘Out Of The Blue’ takes us to the last
stoop in the universe to sing a cyber lullaby to the passing debris before the
sun comes crashing down in to last of humanity.
‘Black Car’ is the track that
plays while the credits roll up and Penfriend drives her hover car off into the
distance leaving a trail of beautiful destruction in her wake. Penfriend is
amazing as a vehicle for the work of Laura Kidd but the real triumph here is
that Kidd is able to turn her hand to so many different styles and still
maintain her superb quality of song writing. I am going to put this firmly in the
running for album of the year and put Penfriend in the category of one of the
most important artists in the UK (and way beyond) right now.
More information: https://www.facebook.com/penfriendrocks