The Daily Spin, May 20
kent | Rod
Welcome back to the Daily Spin, the series in which I review 365 albums during 2023.
Each album will be given a rating on a scale from 0 to 10. You can look at the entire set here. Additionally, you can check out a list of my favorite song from each album right here.
If you want to suggest an album, good news! You can do so right here!
This is our second review of kent. You can find the first here https://thelowmajor.substack.com/p/the-daily-spin-may-14
Album: Rod (2009)
Artist: kent
Link:
Seven years on from the last album of theirs we looked at last week, it’s interesting to see how kent developed their sound relative to how I expected it to.
In essence, I gotta be honest, I think I nailed it. It’s clear that kent was no exception to the increased prominence of electronic music, something that particularly gained purchase in the Nordic nations, but their quick-witted manipulation of synths plays a particularly deft hand in creating songs that maximize replayability without bearing too heavy on the ears.
I stand by what I said last time - when kent slows down, that’s where they stumble. Maintaining that pacing is one of the most important things that the group can do, and to their credit, this album does a significantly better job of that than the previous record did.
It’s still not entirely to my liking - at the end of the day, while I feel like kent has a better grasp on their sound at the close of this record, it also feels as though they’ve falled into the trap of being relatively one-dimensional. Exploratory moves fall a little flat, which is a ding against the album, especially given how few of those it feels like there are.
Rating: 7.6/10
Best Tracks: Taxmannen
Worst Tracks: Svarta linjer