Today, Boston’s avant-garde pop sextet Bent Knee released their epic sophomore album titled Shiny Eyed Babies. As already mentioned, this is a band that constantly balances between grand pop gestures and an experimental mindset; toying with arrangements and song structures all the while effortlessly delivering one pop hook after another. An early evaluation of Shiny Eyed Babies leads me to believe that it’s one of the sonically more dynamic and shape-shifting albums of this fall. Singer Courtney Swain’s voice seems to have grown more baroque and forceful since their self-titled debut, and of what I’ve so far grasped of the lyrics, it’s also deeply personal; dealing with loss, guilt and escaping reality. If you like your pop music epic, unconventional and bleak – sometimes even a bit disturbing – don’t let this one slip by.
