She used a word in describing pop music, or accessible music, that I had never heard anyone use before. She probably said, “I’m excited to see you,” and I was like, “Ah, we’re just going to play some silly little pop songs.” She pressed me, like “Why would you say that about your music?” And that got us into this conversation about why I feel that sort of guilt and shame around those kind of tendencies. I probably said something self-deprecating, as I am wont to do. I met this woman who I didn’t really know, she was a friend of a friend, and I don’t really remember how this came up. The last two years of my life, the journey of that has been about trying to deal with and explore and hopefully eventually rid myself of the shame that comes along with that. That kind of really adventurous music is really important for pushing art and pushing the culture forward, but at the same time I find myself drawn to making a very specific kind of emotional, personal, and accessible kind of music. I spent a lot of time in these micro communities of people that are very judgmental of music that is in any way accessible, or they’ve hyper-intellectualized their relationship to music. I’ve always felt that I’ve been straddling these two worlds of being drawn to making universally acceptable, hook-forward music, but at the same time I felt a lot of shame about that. It’s so good and so much fun, but there’s so much heart in it, and vulnerability.īut the thing that maybe bumped it into favorite territory is that my relationship to this record has coincided with my feelings about pop music in general. It’s fun to dance to but it makes you feel things. Every song is just perfectly written, perfectly produced. So I picked this record for the obvious reason that it is an absolute smash, start to finish. She challenges the illusion and myth of gender, and plays as this sort of strong, hungry, powerful, hypersexualized version of herself. She challenges a lot of the norms and expectations held over the heads of women in music and artistry and life. Chris, the name of the record, is the name of her sort of alter ego. So I chose Chris by Christine and the Queens, which is a product of a French, genderqueer, pansexual woman. So basically this is an impossible task, but what ended up settling it for me was trying to think of the record that I might have the most to actually say about.
I don’t even necessarily believe in the concept of a favorite record, because different records do different things-my love for them and connection can feel equal but in different directions.
In place of a more traditional year-end best-of list, Talkhouse has asked some of our favorite artists to choose their favorite album of 2018 and tell us all about it. Follow Madeline Kenney on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Follow Flock of Dimes on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. FIND TICKETS HEREīuy the 7” split via Carpark Records. When they are in LA, they will perform at the Moroccan Lounge, the very stage that Kenney and company graced last October in support of Perfect Shapes. Now the pair plans to tour together, this time not just because they’re playing in the same band. And while Wasner’s tune may see the silver lining, “Helpless” seems to have given up-though only lyrically, as the synthesizers continue to do work until the fade out. Kenney lets a theremin do most of the talking. “The Sisters,” by Flock of Dimes, lets each chord echo separately into the ether, offering an escape from the burdens of life. Both tracks are cloaked in an ethereality that permeates its foundation, and each seems to have a distant focal point. Unsurprisingly, their instincts significantly overlap. Now they have put out a split 7”, with a song from each artist on either side. Wasner produced Kenney’s verdant record, Perfect Shapes, toured with her right after its release, and they even lived together for some time. In the extreme case of a bond like the one shared between Jenn Wasner (aka Flock of Dimes, and half of Wye Oak) and Madeline Kenney, that collaboration takes on a life of its own. Every friendship between musicians ends in collaboration at some point or another.
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