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It’s been less than a year since Madeline Kenney released her seamless debut LP, Night Night At The First Landing, but her sophomore full-length is already en route. Out Oct. 5 via Carpark, Perfect Shapes, Kenney’s third release if you count her four-track EP Signals, was produced by Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner. The guitar-driven first single, “Cut Me Off,” arrived Wednesday in conjunction with the album announcement, and there’s also a companion music video. Watch Kenney jam in a technicolor elevator and parade through a fluorescent-lit office complex below.
Pairing snackable, sparkly guitar riffs with choral layering, Kenney delivers on “Cut Me Off” a more sporadic spread of sounds than on her more muted 2017 debut. She (literally) hits her stride on “Cut Me Off,” jolting and jiving through the music video’s bleak backdrop: an office. She makes the workspace appear fun, though, as her dancing borders on hip-hop and her facial expressions change from bored to enthralled. If “Cut Me Off” played through the loudspeakers in your office, we bet you’d be dancing through the work day, too.
The song might follow Natalie Prass’ “Short Court Style” on a playlist of get-through-the-weekday jams—both songs tackle feelings via overt grooves. The grooves might be new territory for Kenney, but when she decidedly dances through the day, jigging on the office coffee table is the only catharsis she needs. Most humorously, the song ends with the track being cut off right in the middle of her last word.
Kenney is currently touring with Wye Oak. Wasner played multiple instruments on the record, in addition to serving as producer. She said of her work on the album:
The first time I heard the songs that would come together to form Madeline Kenney’s Perfect Shapes, I understood what it felt like to really have a piece of art speak directly to you … hearing her words felt like someone whispering in my ear the contents of my own mind. This was my first time producing music other than my own, and it was one of the only times I’ve ever experienced working exclusively with women. And it was a creative experience unlike any I’ve ever had.
Last year, we highlighted Kenney as the Best of What’s Next. Revisit her conversation with Paste here. Further down below, you’ll find the Perfect Shapes album art and tracklist, and Kenney’s tour dates.
Perfect Shapes Album Art:
Perfect Shapes Tracklist:
01. Overhead
02. Bad Idea
03. Cut Me Off
04. No Weekend
05. Know
06. The Flavor of the Fruit Tree
07. I Went Home
08. Perfect Shapes
09. Your Art
10. Always Around Me
Madeline Kenney Tour Dates:
July
11 – Salt Lake City, Utah @ Metro Music Hall *
12 – Boise, Idaho @ Neurolux Lounge *
13 – Portland, Ore. @ Revolution Music Hall *
14 – Vancouver, B.C. @ The Biltmore Cabaret *
15 – Seattle, Wash. @ Neumos *
17 – San Francisco, Calif. @ The Independent *
18 – Oakland, Calif. @ Starline Social Club *
19 – Los Angeles, Calif. @ Lodge Room *
20 – San Diego, Calif. @ Soda Bar *
21 – Phoenix, Ariz. @ The Crescent Ballroom *
23 – Santa Fe, N.M. @ Meow Wolf *
24 – El Paso, Texas @ Lowbrow Palace *
27 – Birmingham, Ala. @ Saturn *
(* = with Wye Oak)