Marking the first collaboration between the LA-based menagerie of multi-disciplinary artists that is Bad Owl with the MTV Entertainment Group, Will The Children Still Play is an eclectic mix of West Coast surf-pop, hiptronica, and just overall grooviness.
Bad Owl is a pioneering artist collective and label that specializes in sync-ready music and compositions for your favorite TV shows and movies. Their latest project was the result of intense months of collaboration and the melding of minds during the pandemic, the end result containing a staggering range of genres covered in just a short period of time. Bad Owl used the creation of the music as grounds to reflect, ask questions, and make art to help with sitting in such a deep unknown. Each individual artist and songwriter that contributed to the album added their own unique voice and perspective, resulting in a transcendent array of sounds. Featuring Kinney, members of Karmic, as well as other Bad Owl artists and producers, Will The Children Still Play delivers otherworldly instrumentals and vibrantly illustrated tracks that reflect the diverse musical backgrounds of its collaborators.
Beginning with the infectious and poignant “Coyote Lights,” Kinney’s ethereal vocals haunt on the track and create a dramatically cinematic opening effect that serves as a tone setter for the coming songs. “Who Knew” functions as a dreamy and disaffected psych-pop soundscape complete with woozy delayed guitars and light percussion that is something like the rising action of a film, while still remaining wholly subdued and refined. “Chime In” features the gossamer vocals of Laura Baruch (of Karmic and Flora Fauna), a distinctive vocal presence that really stands out over the dizzying and inspired production that further builds to what is most akin to the project’s cinematic apex. Kyle Tkatch’s (Karmic and TK Rhodes) vocals resonate on the powerful “Love Myself Better”, a fierce and independent denouement moment of the project that perfectly coalesces into the overall themes of reflection and self-love.
An ever rarer medium these days, Bad Owl’s collaborative album Will The Children Still Play functions something like a soundtrack for a movie that hasn’t been written yet. Fully realized audio canvases imbued with the essence of indie-pop, vintage California surf-rock, dreampop, eletronica, and many more niche genres have been adeptly curated onto this project and its talented team of masterminds certainly deserve 20 minutes of your day.
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