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NEW SACRED COW
(COLUMBIA)
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Anyone growing tired of the Neptunes’ omnipresent snap-crackle hip-pop production should give this debut from the young Ethiopian/American singer Kenna a listen. It was produced by Chad Hugo, Pharrell Williams’s silent creative partner, and though it features some of that duo’s trademark glass-candy guitars and double-clutch beatwork, Kenna’s gooey synth-pop tunes frame those familiar sonics in intriguing ways. The driving keyboard line and pulsing drum pattern that define the lead single, "Freetime," give the song a scruffy live-band throb that rubs against Kenna’s careful croon — which can’t help bringing to mind that of Simon LeBon. Nevertheless, the music reflects the tensions in Kenna’s lyrics: "I need to get away/I need to run away," he sings, never quite able to outrun the rhythms before him. "Vexed and Glorious" lives up to its title by floating a pretty wash of guitar fuzz over a stutter-stepped drum loop that keeps threatening the balance of Kenna’s vocal line. New Sacred Cow is full of such delicious friction.
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