Song of the Day: Madeline Kenney - Always

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on The Morning Show with John Richards, is "Always" by Madeline Kenney, from the 2017 album Night Night at the First Landing on Company Records.

Madeline Kenney - Always (MP3)

Released last month on Company Records -- the label run by Chaz Bear of Toro Y Moi -- Madeline Kenney’s Night Night at the First Landing hits hard, bathed in dark reverb and boasting a grand sense of space and landscape. A confident and impressively consistent debut LP, Kenney’s record is steeped in the Pacific Northwest moods and colors she grew up around, which Kenney described to Entertainment Weekly as being “gray eight months out of the year and you kind of have to make do with that… But at the same time, I was never more than 10 minutes from virgin old-growth forests and lakes. It’s so majestically beautiful.” It’s hard not to project these scenes into her vibrant music.

Our Song of the Day pick is a richly textured slow burn, sounding equal parts Beach House and Washed Out, a mixture that her Bandcamp page calls “twang-haze.” Built on a bulletproof groove and so-fuzzy-they’re-breaking-apart guitars, “Always” maintains a distinctly intimate sound, but one that translates well to communal settings. With that in mind, Kenney has an upcoming show in Seattle this Friday, October 20th at the Timbre Room, playing with Annie Hart of Au Revoir Simone. Stay tuned to her Facebook for more info, and check out a video for today's featured song below, directed by Kenney herself.