Great New Local Album Alert: The Kindness Kind

Unfortunately, the freelancer who blurbed the Rosebuds show (which, until I got sick last week, I was planning to write up) did not have the space to say anything about the Kindness Kind's CD release. The seven-song, self-titled album is the band's second, and it actually comes out today. A Kindness Kind got a lot of attention for their first album, A Novel, and they better get ready for their next 15 minute stint in the limelight, because the new album is pretty damn excellent, too (Lucas Carlyle, who produced A Novel, also produced this album.) As usual, Alessandra Rose's dreamy, pleading vocals steal the show, but the instrumental swells keep the album moving sinuously over a lush, hilly sonic landscape, in which reflective, lounge-y piano pop segments give way to measured moments of precise cacophony. In fact, the sense of momentum and off-kilter sound-melding remind me a little bit of Menomena (not to mention the opening drum bit, which sounds a whole lot like the drums that kick off Friend and Foe.) The only problem with this album? Its short duration. Skeptical? I suggest listening to "The Lusk Letter" on A Kindness Kind's MySpace. Or go to their show with No Kids and the Rosebuds at Tractor Tavern this Thursday. It starts at 9 p.m. and costs $10.