Recommended tracks: “Dang,” “bones,” “Tropics”
Artists you may like: Matt Maeson, Mt. Joy, The Backseat Lovers
Leaving a bad relationship is never cut and dry. Rainbow Kitten Surprise knows this all too well with their latest album bones. The 10-track project details the cycles of falling in and out of a failing relationship against the backdrop of hot summer nights.
Filled with their well-known creative lyrics and imagery along with comfortable shifts between indie folk and country rock, the latest release by the 4-piece band is set to be a favourite for both old and new listeners.
Opener “Friendly Fire” introduces the to-and-fro nature of the album with quick shifts in pace in each verse. A slightly harsh lead guitar starts off the song with some smooth bass and live drums offering a relaxed state of mind. However, the second verse accelerates the rhythm with the drums taking up most of the soundscape. Yet, by the end, the smoother tone returns as singer Ela Melo repeats “time tells all.” These fast changes are a reflection of the lyrics that switch between nostalgia and anger when looking back on a past love: “I could paint you a million pictures but you would not look at a single one.”
“Hell Nah” has a more consistent energy, with a phased-out guitar setting off fuller drums and synth keys. In further contrast to “Friendly Fire,” “Hell Nah” has a vocal melody that seems to fall over itself as the band admits a frustration in a relationship that is always either in a “carriage or a casket.” The focus on rhythm in this song emphasises the growing irrationality of the band.
Rainbow Kitten Surprise have been around since the folk bloom of the early 2010s, but have since developed a distinctive sound that, while it stays true to their folk roots, now has a country rock edge to it. The album’s title track “bones” is one of the best examples of this, with the backing “here” and “her’s” in the first verse and and steel electric guitar melody.
Back-pedaling from the first two songs, “bones” sees the start of an ill-fated affair, with its doomed future hidden between lines. The singer knows she isn’t ready for a relationship but still tries for one: “would you be in love for once?” Yet, the verses make it clear that this need for love is simply a distraction from the actual struggles of life with the line “we ain’t gonna fight it right now.”
“100 Summers” was the second single released from bones with its dirty-sounding guitar melody. While the first half of the album keeps away from a strict structure, “100 Summers” is the most clear-cut despite its longer length. Using imagery of summer camp games, the band shows how immaturity can be destructive with lines such as “I can’t back down and I can’t back up.” Wordplay is also a huge part of this album, and the use of the word “band” as both a musical group and a ring in “100 Summers” is a clever way to go from the past tense to the present.
A return to a simpler guitar sound can be found in “murder,” where the band starts to grapple with the reality of their toxic love. The lyrics shift from the veiled illusions of irrational cycles of toxicity to blatant and gory lines. “We’re fucking bruised and broken and you know why” doesn’t shy away from a hard truth, but rather lays it bare for the listener to confront. Still, the singer can’t seem to move on, admitting “I know I got fucking issues” but still “I come running for you baby.”
The first single of the album was “Dang,” and it sees the return of a faster pace. Revelations continue to explode with the falling melody of the pre-chorus letting out long-withheld frustration before ending with the surprised exclamation of “dang.” The second verse further picks up the pace with more drums and high-stringed plucks. As Melo starts crashing out in the last chorus, so does drummer Jess Haney with an abundance of cymbals in the song’s outro.
Both “King” and “Stars” see the reckoning of “Dang”‘s explosion with the start of a slow healing. In a shift away from the rest of the album, “King” starts with a piano that, while still sitting in comfortably within the rest of bones‘ tone, subtly suggests a change in story. A shift from present to past lets the listener know that the singer is once again separated from her lover, but the lines “I’m free babe” and “I’m mad at what we didn’t have” hint that, this time, it’s permanent.
The internal rhyming of “Stars” is a highlight, with the lines such as “Wish me luck / wish you loved me / which you love babe” becoming earworms. The instrumentation in this song is also stagnant, reflecting a uncertainty about whether this is actually goodbye. The album’s story of a relationship that’s stuck in a cycle of reconciling and falling apart is compared to the stars with the question “do you see a sign / do you see the stars line up?”
In a return to card games, “Texas Hold’em” is more hopeful, both lyrically and musically. The guitar and bass are much slower and more relaxed than most of the album, hinting at a new chapter. In reconciliation of the past relationship, the band makes a comparison to gambling and addiction: “we’re on a roll / we were rolling bills.” But, as the song goes along, the metaphor shifts from an addiction to restraint with the evolving line “my cards I’ll never show them / Texas taught me how to hold ’em.”
Closing off bones is “Tropics.” A much more distant drum, grainy synths and simple plucked guitars set “Tropics” apart from the rest of the album, showing that a brand new day has arrived. Finally moving on, the lingering guitar chords remind you of an end credit scene as Melo steadfastly states that “loving you is sinful.” The lyrics bring relief as the band is confident in their newfound independence: “there’s no I in we, bitch / its just me, me, me.”
Focusing on both the good and the bad, Rainbow Kitten Surprise’s latest album bones highlights how the bad can chip away at the good and cloud your judgement. The album is both upbeat and emotionally heavy, showing how the band is able to still bring a certain sense of lightness to a crushing subject.
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