Penfriend Presents EXOTIC MONSTERS Album Review — A Look at One Exhausting Year

“Remember the summer everyone stayed at home

Ships in a bottle, stacked up with our lives on hold”

The first lines of Black Car, the final track of Penfriend’s album Exotic Monsters, look back on the previous year. The song uses synths and repetitive beats to give us a more subdued, almost nostalgic emotion, compared to the wide range of emotions, from overwhelmed to outrage and finally exhaustion, characterizing prior songs in the album.

Laura Kidd is a UK-based music producer, songwriter, and digital polymath who, under the name Penfriend, records and produces music that falls under the indie rock category. Her newest album, Exotic Monsters, which was released May 21st, is a self-described dystopian reflection on our world. The album includes 12 songs, each ranging from soft synths to hard rock.

Penfriend Tells An Emotional Story Through The Lens Of Overwhelmed Outrage.

Throughout the album, a range of instruments, synth, mechanical sounds, and vocals are utilized to give us feelings of outrage and defeat. Each song uses repetitive synth beats to mimic the feeling of emotional weight piling up, as well as many acoustic instruments to either assist or introduce new emotions. For example, the ukulele uses minor chords and is augmented with effects such as reverb to make us feel like things are piling up, almost making us feel emotionally drained. In contrast, the blaring guitars simulate feelings of outrage and anger within us.

The vocals meet each emotional beat just as the instruments do. Screaming vocals are layered to show the overwhelming feelings, and those screams are used along with the guitars in the angry songs to amplify the feeling. A minor key is being sung throughout, which may feel exhausted or outraged depending on where in the album it is located.

The sixth song on the album Seashaken follows this pattern. By using repetitive audio, a ukulele in minor chords, and audio effects, such as chiptune and reverb, the song manages to make us feel like we're drowning. This is further shown through the lyrics:

“Got to get off of this sinking ship

Doing my best but I got to go”

For this reviewer, the whole album seems to mimic the feelings of the past year -- from the uncertainty and piling nature of the first few months, to outrage toward those who would intentionally not wear a mask, thus putting more in harm's way, then finally defeat at the absolute insanity of it all and just wanting it to end. Through the album's use of repetition and instrument choice, it managed to simulate the reaction that many had to an abysmal year of upheaval.

Overall, Exotic Monsters is recommended to anyone who loves rock or Lofi, but who is also in the mood for something a bit more experimental, especially after the previous year.

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Produced/Composed/Performed by Laura Kidd
Piano by Catherine Anne Davies
Drums by Max Saidi
Mixed by Dan Austin
Mastered by Katie Tavini
For more information, go to the Riot Act Media website

Images courtesy of Laura Kidd