Having reformed in 2021 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their debut single Egotripper (produced by Andy Bell – Ride/Oasis) with a series of well received live shows, The Kynd are back with Timelines, their first new music in over 20 years.
The 12 track album sees The Kynd, consisting of Paul King (vocals), Danny Tipping (guitar), Tristan Tipping (bass), and joined by their live band Fin Kenny (90’s psych rockers Spitfire) and keyboard maestro Tom Collison (Billy Bragg) alongside horns and strings from Joe Bennett (St. Etienne/Goldrush) on fine form, with great melodies, harmonies and catchy guitars riffs. Here’s the ThisIsTheMusic track by track preview:
Workshy – starts off in a wave of feedback and a hint of morse code, before exploding into life at a ferocious pace driven by an irresistible guitar hook and pounding drums. There’s a great tempo change in the middle 8, that sees the pace drop, before exploding back into life. The outro features a catchy guitar riff and is a great way to start off the comeback album.
Saturn Eyes wears its indie jangle pop influences on its sleeve. The guitars really chime and with the lyric “the girl with the Saturn lonely eyes is everything that I need” hints at this being written about the excitement and spark of being in love with someone,
Older – was the bands most recent release and is a bit of stomper. It kicks of with synths and an acoustic guitar, before a great guitar hook plays over the top. Lyrically, the song sees the band in reflective mood highlighting on getting older, whilst looking forward “All my life’s in front of me, tell me something that I don’t know”
“One of the best things about The Kynd reuniting in 2021 is that those songs that we had written, rehearsed and gigged years ago now finally have a home. From that point of view this new album feels a little bit like ‘musical archaeology’, insofar as we had to dig through our archives and our memories to revisit these old songs, which we hadn’t thought about for 20 years.”
Paul King
Sunrise: Reprise – is driven by a groovy bass line and stunning strings and horn section that add real colour and texture to the song whilst showcasing the quality of musicianship that runs through the group.
Alive, Alone is a slow ballad number, which surprisingly features a thumping bass line and is front and centre of the song. The outro is superb and the song really bursts into life, with the bass line joined by a 60s psychedelic sounding mellotron that is simply stunning.
Keepsake is the type of ballad that every band ought to have in their collection. The vocal is really passionate and the strings give the song a real atmospheric vibe.
“The demos were in various stages, from complete recordings of songs that were already part of our live set at that point, to fragments of ideas we’d been working on in the studio. Playing them together again has been really enjoyable and we can’t wait for people to hear these tunes.’’
Tristan Tipping
Whispers and Tones – this was the comeback single and is a guitar driven slice of indie rock. The guitars are punchy and uplifting and they keys add great colour and texture and give a feeling of 60s psychedelic with a modern day feel. There’s a nod to Sympathy for The Devil on the backing vocals and it’s easy to see why the band choose this as their comeback song.
Song For Baby is an upbeat track with some of the best guitar hooks on the album, all played on an acoustic guitar which just sound magnificent. It’s a further demonstration of the musicianship on display. Keeping with the upbeat nature of the melody, the lyrics are full of joy as they welcome a new arrival, and if you are parent or even a grandparent are truly relatable.
The fuzzy guitar riffs on Spitfire Summer are almost psychedelic in nature and the groovy bassline is my favourite on the album. Lyrically Spitfire Summer is looking back on years gone by, rather than where the band are now in their lives. The vocal is glorious and is powerful, emotive and melodic.
Effervescent is a real toe-tapper driven by jangly psychedelic guitars and a deep resonating bass line. There’s plenty of mellotron and fantastic harmonies in this track. The middle 8 features a great beatle-ly guitar solo (Revolver era) and psychedelic synths that drives the song on and on and is a real standout in the album.
Homespun Genius sees the tempo picked up and is full of jangly guitars and a punchy rhythm with another great vocal. There’s a clever tempo change in the track and again demonstrates the quality of musicianship on display. It does make you wonder why more bands don’t do this, when it sounds this good.
Grace starts off with finger picking, Paul’s vocal and mellotrons, before developing into a classic closing album track, with great intricate guitar hooks, and a cinematic guitar solo set against a backdrop of acoustic guitars. This is a really strong track and is a great way to close the album.
The Kynd have released a masterpiece of a second album. It’s full of emotion and love, oozing great songwriting. The joy and excitement of making music together again is really evident and it’s such a strong album from start to finish and is a contender for album of the year.
Timelines is released on Friday 10th March via UK indie label Rock//Paper//Scissors and is available to pre-order on Ltd edition vinyl and CD from the bands Bandcamp store.
The Kynd will be joining me on episode 56 ThisIsTheMusic meets podcast, which will be released next week!
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