Call it indie music for folks that don’t exactly dig indie music. On My Loneliest Debut, Kinsey (Nick Kinsey) creates a massive sound out of acoustic guitars, pianos, synths, clarinets and just about every other instrument laying around the studio. The result is a wild, beautiful collection of songs that easily move from the colossal (like the opener “Wide Awake”) to smaller, more stripped down moments (“Dawn,” “Chateau Ludlow”), all the while managing to avoid the trap of sounding pretentious and precious, a hallmark of far too many in the indie pop world.
There are hints of everyone from Wilco and R.E.M. to Bob Dylan throughout the 11 tracks here. “Whipping Boy,” even sounds like a long lost Cat Stevens number. It’s the myriad of influences and the way Kinsey manages to blend them to create his own sound that that makes this such an impressive record.
Kinsey – My Loneliest Debut/11 tracks/Self-Released/2015