The Kindness Kind, A Novel

The Kindness Kind has an unusual sound. On their debut album, A Novel, they combine a sort of Strokes-style dance-pop with acoustic instruments, electronic loops, and classical instrumental lines. The group shows a lot of talent and potential, but unfortunately, they don’t do that much with it.

The band’s singer, Alessandra Rose, is both the band’s secret weapon and Achilles heel. She brings a huge vocal style reminiscent of Karen O or Jana Hunter to the band, and that’s something the band needs, but her singing is mostly flat. She sings in the same way for the entire album. Her voice is beautiful and powerful, and for a song or two, it works. Over the course of the whole album, though, she makes all the songs sound the same.

The songs are also not quite memorable. The best song here, “Quiet Words Are Quiet Words,” is a pretty slow-burner but the rest, particularly the more energetic ones, are bland and unremarkable. The band itself comes up with some interesting ideas, like the rocking of “Climb in the Sun,” the dissonant classical interlude in “Perfect,” and the droning introduction to “Timeless,” but all of this isn’t enough to save the album.

For any band, having your own sound is valuable. And The Kindness Kind don’t quite sound like anyone else. It’s what you do with it, however, that counts, and at the important task — songs — they don’t fare real well. Considering this is their first ablum, they’ve got time to work on that part. If they can start writing something more interesting, they might have something real here. Otherwise, they’ll just be another pretty face.