Sucker's Lunch

A collection of love songs of an uncommon nature tinged with loneliness and self-doubt, Suckers Lunch is indie songwriter Madeline Kenneys third solo album. Its her second in a row with Jenn Wasner co-producing. Unlike 2018s Perfect Shapes, however, they are joined here by Wasners Wye Oak bandmate, Andy Stack. Several other guests contributed performances to the recordings expansive sound, though it remains intimate and searching in nature. One such guest, Lambchops Kurt Wagner, lends vocals to Sucker, an album highlight whose unhurried, reflective feel takes on a sweet, affectionate tone from the intros gentle strummed guitar and piano chords, dancing bass line, and playful lead guitar melody. When Kenneys voice enters, shes shadowed by Wagner, but only on certain phrases. She harmonizes herself on lines like the repeated Go on ahead without me. (Stephen Steinbrink, Boy Scouts Taylor Vick, and Olivia Gerber join Kenney and Wye Oak later, on White Window Light.) The dreamier Picture of You maintains the midtempo pace of most of the album but adds shimmery keyboards and echoing guitar between vocals that themselves are doubled and reverbed as lyrics yearn to travel through time. Occasional songs -- Jenny and Double Hearted -- are more up-tempo and rhythmically hooky, but Suckers Lunch stays anchored in rumination and uncertainty. Sweet Coffee is perhaps the albums most experimental as well as most defiant entry. It closes the record on a spare, clanging ballad replete with ominous noise effects, perhaps drowning in the could be. If theres no happy ending for the heroine, the album still satisfies with its artful balance of meditation and catharsis. ~ Marcy Donelson