Monsters

A Baltimore native who moved to Germany to study film and put down roots in Berlin, Sophia Kennedy began her career in the performing arts as a film and theater producer and composer of music for the stage. She brought a conspicuous theatrical quality and traditional vocal pop instincts to her eponymous debut album, a set of mercurial art-pop that employed orchestral instruments, keyboards and electronics, and sundry percussion alike. Four years later, the follow-up, Monsters, picks up where that album left off, submitting an unpredictable sequence of 13 tracks injected with elements of cabaret, hip-hop, indie electronic, modern pop, and more. Its dreamy, seductive opener, "Animals Will Come," may be best described as an alt-R&B;/indie pop hybrid. It marks off chord progressions with bass and organ under ornamental jazz guitar, brushed cymbal, and nostalgic vocals before moving on to a section of pulsing, distorted synth bass, buzzy melodic scales, and faint, choir-like backing vocals. "Orange Tic Tac" soon incorporates rap and hip-hop beats, whereas third track "I Can See You" opts for a driving synth pop, though none of these labels capture the irregular textures and mix of programmed and handmade sounds (ununiform handclaps and organic percussion on "I Can See You") that bring a hyper-stylized quality to each track. Kenny's swing era-inflected vocals hit her peak Billie Holiday on "Seventeen," a quieter entry with humming keys over simple Latin rhythms and warped metallic beats. The brief "Do They Know" delves into refined, a cappella-style harmony vocals as the lead-in to the contrastingly funky "Cat on My Tongue." Ever defying passive listening, Monsters ends on the ominous and oversaturated quasi-industrial track "Dragged Myself into the Sun," which includes a taped conversation that closes the art piece with the advice, "If you think you're making progress, that's important."