SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: MR KITTY – A.I.

Mr Kitty
A.I.
Negative Gain

This is what I had to say about Mr Kitty’s 2013 album Life: Twenty years from now I will listen to this with nostalgia and tenderness, and it will still ring true in my ears and my heart, it is one of the few records of this decade that will undoubtedly remain with me, as a limb, as an extension of my soul, and it will infuse me with youth and rhythm. Today, four years later, I feel the same about A.I. for very similar reasons and an entirely new set of songs to connect with.

A.I. does something rare in which it brings the high energy performance of Mr Kitty into a studio album. The feelings that have taken over me the two times in which I have seen Mr Kitty on stage came back to me with this record: it is visceral, captivating, and dense, with soft tender moments of quiet introspection between hard beats. ”I…” is the intro that allows us to set our brains into gear for the synthpop that is to come. ”Undo” got me immediately, it has the Mr Kitty sound and feel, a true hyper ballad. ”Habits” (feat. PASTEL GHOST) changes the mood and keeps A.I.‘s absorbing and magical aura going. ”Forget” is fast and heavy, and even if you do not dance, this one will make you move. ”give/take” bears the same heaviness however its tempo is slower. ”No Heart” changes the pace once more, there is a pleasant thrill, sort of a roller-coaster effect when listening to all of these songs in a row.

”Malformed” is a heartfelt deep tune, quintessential music for dancing and crying. ”Crisis Point” is a beautiful organized chaos of a song and I would definitely love to hear this tune live. I am quite certain a live version of this will leave us speechless. ”Earthstones” reminds me of animation, and playing video games, and being a child, and then maturing and still feeling childlike. ”Lamentation” is undoubtedly a perfect dancing song. ”Dream Diver” features 巡音ルカ, or Megurine Luka, who is a humanoid persona voiced by a singing synthesizer application, but how human and enchanting it sounds.

”Birds Of Prey” is a bit like an adrenaline rush. I consider ”Healing Waters” the mellowest of the record and also so comforting. ”Greater Than Us” is the type of song I usually look for, it stays in a deep cavity of the heart but also is good to dance to once that mood strikes. ”I Hope You Fall Apart” is, just like the rest of this intense album filled with sounds that evoke so many memories and bring to the surface so many emotions. Perhaps this wasn’t Mr Kitty’s intention, but personally A.I. fills me with an odd sense of nostalgia, not as someone who is looking at the past, but as someone who is looking at the future.

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