welcome to the new punkaganda press +

welcome to the new punkaganda press +

welcome to the new punkaganda press +

welcome to the new punkaganda press +

welcome to the new punkaganda press +

welcome to the new punkaganda press +

Review

REVIEW: Kicksie Returns With Melodic New LP 'Slouch'

Written By:
Shanya Olivares
Photography By:
Posted:
April 15, 2023
PHOTO BY ALICE HIRSCH

Here with another review! This week, we are extremely excited to introduce you all to Kicksie, a Toronto-based project started by Guliana Mormile. The 5-year-old band began in 2018 with a debut on Bandcamp and currently define their genre as a “warm, incisive brand of electro-tinged emo-pop.” With multiple releases since their beginning, we have another release from Kicksie, an LP titled “Slouch,” which is followed by the release of two accompanying singles, the first released on February 8th and titled “You’re On”, and the second released on March 8th and titled “Sinking In.” 

We start this new LP with a song titled “Closure,” which already had me excited about the rest of the album. This song is a perfect anthem for the very common issue of never being able to say goodbye to someone and feeling like you deserved that. Following that and a previously released single that you will all have to hear on your own, we have a song titled “Boyfriend,” which is a much more upbeat and confident song about finding what you deserve. Similarly, the song is followed by another titled “Arcade,” which talks about the romantic nature of being with someone and thinking of them differently than they are. Followed by a previously released single, which we’ll leave you to interpret on your own, we have track 6 titled “yyyy,” a slower song about the question “why?” in which Kicksie asks why they do the things they did for a person they no longer have. 

For track 7, we have “Wish I Was (Anyone Else),” in collaboration with Mei, which tells the story of this thought in the back of their heads questioning whether other people often wish you were different as well. An overpowering insecurity that follows us to the following track, titled “Hear Me Out,” which follows the journey of falling in love and understanding it when it feels too late. Very different from the previous songs, we have “Go-Getter,” a very upbeat song about being with a person very different from you, in this sense Kicksie is the go-getter tied with a closed off person and this song is their realization of it. Continuing with more upbeat songs, the second to last song in the LP is “Jaws,” which follows in the trend of realizing you deserve a lot more, but this song tells the story of wishing something was the way it was imagined, but the effort wasn’t there.

Finally, to close off, we have the final song of the LP, titled “Whatever, I Guess,” which is the anthem for those who make sacrifices to avoid conflict and convince themselves that it doesn’t matter, why? because nothing matters. 

For those looking for a new LP to obsess over or a new group to keep up with, I recommend listening to Kicksie’s new LP! “Slouch” is out now on all streaming platforms! We can’t wait to keep up with Kicksie and see where they go next! 

about the author

Shanya Olivares

she/her
abigailolives@gmail.com
Anaheim, CA
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