Red Kitchen - The Second Person

Red Kitchen

The Second Person
self-released; 2016

3.8 out of 5

By J Simpson
​

As artists, it can sometimes be difficult to know who you're talking to. It's a confusing balance between being highly introverted, sensitive individuals, who also have the often contradictory urge to express themselves. "Extraverted introverts” if you will.

Nothing speaks more to this complex contradiction than the reality of a solo project, particularly with those individuals that do absolutely everything themselves, as in the case of The Second Person by Seattle's Red Kitchen.

The Second Person takes these themes of isolation and a private world to the most un-rock-n-roll setting imaginable - a retirement home. The Second Person is a loose concept album about an elderly man who's just lost his wife, and is slowly drifting into dementia, floating around the nursing home like a goldfish bowl.

It's no great shock to notice that Red Kitchen is from Washington, where twee lo-fi never seemed to go out of fashion. K Records really made their mark on the psychic landscape of that state! You can definitely hear echoes of classic lo-fi outfits like The Moldy Peaches, Beat Happening, or The Microphones/Mount Eerie. There's a similar style of detuned vocals, acoustic instruments, and sour-sweet garage rock.

Lucky for Red Kitchen, twee's rolling back around again, thanks to a new wave of lo-fi singer/songwriters like Frankie Cosmos or the lsd-damaged bubblegum of beach goth.

The one thing that can be said for solo artists/albums - an incredible amount of work goes into such a labor of love, and it shows. It's almost a guaranteed stamp of quality, particularly when they're proficient multi-instrumentalists, like Red Kitchen.

​The Red Kitchen's Matt McClure might not know who he's talking to with The Second Person, but this is likely the last time he'll be facing such uncertainties. He'll have packed rooms singing along within the year - mark our words.

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