Kisnue heartfelt third album shows diverging musical styles
Kisnue
A Dream of Wings
SEL, 2022.
9.4
Review by Jamie Finn (@jamiefinn2209)
Kisnue returns with their third full-length album, A Dream of Wings, and the first since releasing the two EPs that saw them become stars of melancholic bedroom pop. It's an album that stays true to the sound that they are known for, while demonstrating Song Eun-seok’s emotional growth and evolution as a songwriter.
A Dream of Wings sees Kisnue in a typically reflective mood, as Song tenderly mumble-sings about late-night connections, dreams and, at times, battling self-hate. The lyrics are touchingly honest as he opens himself up and bares all. "I keep going in circles, I keep caving into the choices", he sings on Circles. Elsewhere, the singer demonstrates a refreshing vulnerability and self-doubt. "Am I a terrible person?" he asks on album opener, monochrome, and he explores further on the aptly titled iwishiwassomebodyelse.
Musically, it's an album divided very much in two, with each half having styles that are distinctively separate parts of Kisnue's sound. The first half is full of reflective-yet-hooky indie-pop akin to Phoenix and Bombay Bicycle Club. Tracks like Ungodly Hour, monochrome, and Circles, with their pulsing rhythms, are going to be floor fillers in future live sets by the band.
Around halfway through, the album switches to a more ethereal and atmospheric sound, densely layered and largely without drums. This is where we see a real evolution for Kisnue, who have made this kind of music before but have never felt so assured in exploring their own different compositional strengths.
Song’s voice often lays so delicately, as if in hiding, behind his warm and dreamy guitar parts. It gives everything he makes such a sense of intimacy, like you're hearing the personal, almost confessional thoughts of the singer. While his trademark aloof vocal style remains predominant here, there are moments of more soulful delivery too. On tracks like phonecall and Fall, Song croons with a silky smooth, quiet intensity that shows a clear R'n'B influence on his singing.
While A Dream of Wings demonstrates the two core sounds Kisnue is known for, the album closes on a complete deviation from them. Fly is a rare moment of minimal folk for the band that sees them drop the thick layers for a sparse and direct sound. The track, which acts as a kind of epilogue, sounds different to the rest of the album, yet it bares the same tender and reflective sound Kisnue are known for and delivers with aplomb on this album.
