Violent Mae’s second full-length album may be called Kid, but it sounds like a band coming into its own. The duo — Becky Kessler (vocals and guitar) and Floyd Kellogg (drums, bass, guitar, keyboards, and backing vocals) — have been fixtures of New Haven’s music scene for the past couple years, on the strength of their live performances and their 2013 self-titled album. Kid shows that the first album was also just a first step, as their second record pushes their sound further, and charts a course for their future.
“In the Sun,” the album’s opener, is also its standout. A masterpiece of economy, it’s built out of a three-chord progression that lasts through the entire song. Its verses are essentially built out of two notes, a mere half-note apart. But Kessler shows what her voice can do with them, and how just the right additions and subtractions can turn those two notes into an engine that pauses only occasionally for one heck of a crooned hook. Kessler’s singing and energetic guitar work — combined with Kellogg’s ever-intensifying drumming, as thoughtful as it is visceral — make “In the Sun” a song that somehow just keeps ramping up, the tension coiling tighter and tighter, until it comes to an abrupt stop for which the only real cure is to play the song again.
But Kid offers more for those who can tear themselves away from “In the Sun” to explore the rest of the album. “In My Ring” and “Neon Halos” are straight-ahead rockers, while “Flame” turns out to be a nice, slow burn. “Rob Me Blind” has some really nice rhythmic work from Kellogg. “Away,” “Kid,” and “Birthday” even have a little country twang in the blood running through their lurching hearts.
Holding this all together are the album’s production values, which preserve the music’s jagged edges while also bathing it in reverb. This choice perhaps limits the emotional range the music can have; it’s hard to be, for example, mindlessly joyful in a sonic space like that. But mindless joy is not what Kid is going for. The production values match the songs and focus the whole effort, allowing Kid to cohere into a solid musical statement.
Violent Mae’s description of itself mentions that it “was never meant to be a band.” Kessler had approached Kellogg two years ago to ask him to help record a solo record for her, only to find that the musical “chemistry between the two sparked the evolution of an artistic partnership.” That the band considers itself to still be evolving is exciting news for us. If Violent Mae is still a kid, the possibilities for where Kessler and Kellogg can go from here seem wide open.
Violent Mae’s Kid is available through Bandcamp, iTunes, Spotify, and other usual places.