Madeline Kenney’s Kiss From The Balcony continues the Oakland-based singer-songwriter’s journey into experimental pop territory, following the release of her 2023 LP A New Reality Mind. Here, the poppier tracks feel sharpened by a fruitful collaboration with friends Ben Sloan (electronics, percussion) and Stephen Patota (guitar). The album’s flow is sometimes interrupted by the disparity of styles, but it is a dense tour-de-force born of what must have been two intensely creative week-long studio sessions.
Kenney’s opening hooks are direct, fun and satisfying – the beginning of ‘Scoop’, the start of the LP, is so light and energetic that it practically carries you through the first half of the album. There is an optimism and need to dance that comes through a mixture of Kenney’s production and Sloan’s contributions in the percussion and electronics. The tracks that are in this vein make up the meat of the album, and the more acoustic ones feel like outliers.
The album’s most daring number is the jagged, shimmering ‘Slap’. It opens with a fast-paced pulsing synth, broken up by off-kilter drums that feel at odds with the electronics – in the best way. It’s made up of several distinct sections, which individually feel unresolved – but are bridged by moments of clarity where the different parts of the instrumentation unite in joyous layered harmony. My favourite moment in this track is her cry for answers: “I wanna see where it started breaking,” where the word ‘breaking’ is augmented into a beautiful, auto-tuned riff of its own. The word leaves her mouth and is made into something completely different.
Kenney continues to throw everything she has at the canvas – sometimes to the detriment of the listening experience – but there are real moments of sonic genius. The sound here ranges from somewhere between Björk and Kate Bush to some beautifully stripped-back, folky tracks (‘Cue’ is a lush impressionist painting of strings, led by Kenney’s anguished voice). It feels more like a showcase of her breadth as an artist than an album with a particular world of its own.
A splashy, creative and optimistic album, Madeline Kenney’s Kiss From The Balcony is a lovely addition to the soundtrack of 2025’s summer. It shows off her immense capabilities as an artist, and an impressive evolution from her indie-rock roots.
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Review by Holly Sewell
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