A Baltimore native who moved to Germany to study film and put down roots in Berlin, Sophia Kennedy began her career in the performing arts as a film and theater producer and composer of music for the stage. She brought a conspicuous theatrical quality and traditional vocal pop instincts to her eponymous debut album, a set of mercurial art-pop that employed orchestral instruments, keyboards and electronics, and sundry percussion alike. Four years later, the follow-up, Monsters, picks up where that album left off, submitting an unpredictable sequence of 13 tracks injected with elements of cabaret, hip-hop, indie electronic, modern pop, and more. Its dreamy, seductive opener, Animals Will Come, may be best described as an alt-R&B/indie pop hybrid. It marks off chord progressions with bass and organ under ornamental jazz guitar, brushed cymbal, and nostalgic vocals before moving on to a section of pulsing, distorted synth bass, buzzy melodic scales, and faint, choir-like backing vocals. Orange Tic Tac soon incorporates rap and hip-hop beats, whereas third track I Can See You opts for a driving synth pop, though none of these labels capture the irregular textures and mix of programmed and handmade sounds (ununiform handclaps and organic percussion on I Can See You) that bring a hyper-stylized quality to each track. Kennys swing era-inflected vocals hit her peak Billie Holiday on Seventeen, a quieter entry with humming keys over simple Latin rhythms and warped metallic beats. The brief Do They Know delves into refined, a cappella-style harmony vocals as the lead-in to the contrastingly funky Cat on My Tongue. Ever defying passive listening, Monsters ends on the ominous and oversaturated quasi-industrial track Dragged Myself into the Sun, which includes a taped conversation that closes the art piece with the advice, If you think youre making progress, thats important. ~ Marcy Donelson

Rovi