Hi, guys. Last blogs of the year are upon us. Send music shit to [ fosterhildingmusic@gmail.com ] or DM me on Instagram.
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| photos stolen from the internet. |
This release was honestly the last thing I was expecting to come out of 2024. After years and years of quiet work, Ben Barnett has returned in the same furious glory with Kind of Like Spitting's newest EP, SOON. Subtle and sprawling ballads scratch that early emo-ish itch with a reverent, returning fervor unmatched. What a return.
Warm Springs Night, a cover of Joel R.L. Phelps' contemplative swing, brings us back to those drawn out soft rock ballads tinged with hooky riffs and incredible pop lyricism à la Continent. A fragile organ pulses and wains between these stone age guitars cluttering the scene in their slightly distorted fur and breaks, so perfectly placed. At the end of these chorus lines, we get this unexpected sprinkle of dissonance against beauty. "Warm springs night" etches its own repetition into this bursting bubble of tension and release, crashes guiding us into it all. Ben's voice is as powerful as ever, almost as if its gained a reminiscence and insight of its own in the years between what was, and now is, Kind of Like Spitting. A lonesome cowboy guitar slides and vibrates, in time to its own patient groove, before my favorite line: "The ghost of your neighbor's still coughing up blood."
#LARRYSTRONG shifts in tone to some lo-fi-ish love song to a furry friend. Ben's harmonies here are so sweet, and melt like butter into each other. I just love the goodness and bittersweet goodbye this song is.
Song For Karl Hendricks just seeps into your bones. Two guitars, one tucked away behind your right ear like a pencil, the other slow dancing to the tone of a warbling keyboard. It takes you back to a time you're unsure you were ever a part of, a little moment in history you only remember because you were told the memories. Beautiful in its simplicity and fucking heartbreaking when those horns come marching in. He knows just what chords will harmonize with our hearts, which ones will play its strings and give us that same melancholy.
I adore this project. It fills me with so much joy and excitement to see a legend like Ben back in the Kind of Like Spitting throne. I can only imagine what awesome things may come in the future. Thanks for reading, everyone, and thanks, Ben, for the years and years of beautiful tunes.
9/10
Stream SOON.
-Foster
See Kind of Like Spitting live at your renaissance festival at The Telegram Ballroom on May 24th-25th.
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