Album Review: Distant Cousins Are Happy With Their “Next of Kin”
OMG! Distant Cousins new album, Next of Kin, PUMPS with a “joie de vivre” that is NOT for the negative. If you are a bitter person, refrain from this record of optimism. For Distant Cousins, lyrics are meant to be mantras, and mantras are meant to be the good words you repeat as you try to make better actions.
From the minute you press play, “Lights On,” you feel like you entered a party that was LIT with positivity. It was as if Iyanla Vanzant was baking the birthday cake, the Dalai Lama put up the streamers, and Distant Cousins decided to provide the bouncing soundtrack as Oprah set up the drinks. If positivity and self-healing were presented as excitedly as this record, I think more people would be willing to go for it. At times, even Heaven, sounds like a snooze, of which calm and coma are made to be interchangeable. Yet, Distant Cousins’s tracks like, “This Day On,” “Mighty Love,” and “I Get By,” show calm is the launchpad for fun, and it is true!
You ever been surrounded by friends and felt kind of lonely? Have you ever been watching a comedy movie, and suddenly you become obsessed with a fight you had with a friends 2 weeks ago or how your student loans are piling? Our issues have the tendency to take a chunk out of our capacity to have fun, and, from “Running” to “Angelina,” Dov Rosenblatt voice soars like someone learning to have a pure joy for the first time. You may think that preposterous, but, unfortunately, not everyone in this world can or will say they knew what is was to have a moment where they fully embraced joy: no grey thoughts looming. Thus, Rosenblatt’s voice feels enriched by backing synths and keys welling forward like gold from a mine.
Coming out November 30, Distant Cousins’ Next of Kin is a united, celebratory force that traverses folk-pop, heartland pop-rock, and bluesy hues to tie “the songs together is honesty.” As guitarist Duvid Swirsky explains, “What comes from the heart goes to the heart,” and this record beats with love. For More Information On Distant Cousins’ Next of Kin Click Here.
