Kiran Leonard
Grapefruit
Reviewed by: Geno Thackara
Feel like some experimental rock with a touch of thrash? Want a bit of chamber music here and there too? How about lo-fi basement pop? A dash of psych-folk or retro jazz on the side? If your answer to all of the above is YES, you’re in luck. Kiran Leonard has a taste for each of these things (and more) and apparently just can’t help sharing them all – and all together, like a bar bet where they offer some prize for downing a cocktail mixed from a dozen things at once. I’ve never done that kind of thing myself, but I imagine the experience isn’t entirely unlike listening to this.
It’s hard to imagine anyone walking away from Grapefruit with a lukewarm reaction. Like its namesake, it’ll either be something you feel drawn to once you get used to the flavor, or something your taste buds flat-out reject like an expired credit card. The songs can build segues at any moment or just turn on a dime. He uses swaying indie guitar riffs, oddball vocal chanting, gaudy formal strings, loud flailing guitar or formless percussion that sounds like a Stomp piece without the rhythm. With a lighter touch this stuff could almost be zany, but I get the feeling Leonard isn’t shooting for zany. He plays it all straight-faced like a serious artist explaining that there’s a deep ineffable meaning behind every seemingly random element on the canvas. And hey, for all I know, maybe there is.
If you enjoy Frank Zappa but get frustrated when he’d focus on one thing for a whole album at a time, and especially if you’ve got a taste for overdramatic, slightly off-key vocal stylings a-la Bright Eyes or Neutral Milk Hotel, this album could be right up your alley. Otherwise it’ll more likely come out as a harsh jumble without much rhyme or reason to it – occasionally exhilarating but more often exhausting. Many or most listeners would find it almost unlistenable, but I suspect Leonard might take that as a badge of pride. I’d suggest a helping of Grapefruit if you really want to make your day a little more surreal, or maybe to give an unruly child a bit of unusual-but-not-technically-
Rating: Semi-Obnoxious
