Kindness – Otherness
Reviewed By: Alex McCullough
Rating: 4/10
Kindness is the solo project of British musician Adam Bainbridge, and he has been active in the UK’s thriving indie-electronic scene for the last few years. Otherness is the second full length release from Kindness, and with it, Bainbridge presents an entirely underwhelming and stale effort. Uninspired lyrics combine with recycled and ersatz musical themes to create an album that just isn’t very much fun to listen to.
The first song that I heard from this album was “I’ll Be Back”, a smooth, funky jam that made me think I might enjoy this record, but unfortunately the rest of the album doesn’t hold up. “I’ll Be Back” uses a catchy piano lead with R&B style finger snaps and a subdued beat that makes it pretty danceable. However, as the album progressed, I found myself getting tired of the repetitive, boring lyrics and musical themes. There are things I want to like about the production of this album; the horns, various keyboard sounds, and subtle bass lines have the potential to be very likable, but they just end up sounding dull and reused.
There are songs on this album such as “World Restart” and “I’ll Be Back” that give off a strong LCD Soundsystem vibe, specifically the album 45:33. The cowbells and piano are definitely reminiscent of that EP, but unfortunately Kindness just doesn’t have the same likability as James Murphy and company have. Overall, the songs on this record just have an unoriginal feel to them. Even with the help of indie giants like Robyn and Kelela, Otherness just feels like a collection of uninspired material. If you’re really into UK indie, you might want to give it a listen, otherwise, listen to How to Dress Well or Perfume Genius if you want some decent solo indie stuff.
Favorite tracks: “I’ll Be Back”, “Who Do You Love”
RIYL: Naughty Boy, Sam Smith, Kelela
FCC Violations: None
