The full-length debut of West Coast singer and songwriter Madeline Kenney, Night Night at the First Landing presents textured indie rock with a fair share of grit underneath its dreamy, impressionistic veneers. It's a mature sound for a musician who played piano and wrote songs as a child but got away from it over time -- at least the songwriting part. After graduating from college and relocating from her hometown of Seattle to Oakland, California, Kenney quickly took to the area's wide-ranging arts scene. She began writing songs again, started to learn music engineering, and within two years released an EP produced by Toro y Moi's Chaz Bear. Arriving a year later, Night Night at the First Landing was also produced by Bear (Kenney, in turn, contributed to Toro y Moi's 2017 LP, Boo Boo). While most of the album falls in a lush, relaxed dream state somewhere in between, the songs range from the relatively fierce and fuzzy "Rita," which floats in and out of dense, alt-rocky choruses, and the gentle, more lucid "Waitless." The latter has passages of stratified backing vocals and, more surprisingly, borderline mathy guitar-and-rhythm-section breaks. Elsewhere, "Witching Hour" also plays with rhythm and time signatures, while a tempo is only implied on "This Way//You're Happy," as its central vocal line coasts through a fog of layered vocal loops and echo. It's a balance of floaty experimentalism, fuzzy hooks, and hummable melodies that works well alongside a lyrical tension between irritation and romantic affection ("There's something so good about coming home late and finding you waiting for me"). It's also a promising debut from a newcomer with disproportionate poise.
© Marcy Donelson /TiVo