New Music: Ailbhe Reddy – Kiss Big

While previous singles That Girl, So Quickly, Baby, and Align revealed Ailbhe Reddy’s unerring ability to create indie/pop gems, her new album’s title track is revelatory in other, wonderful ways.

Largely based on Reddy’s vocals and an acoustic guitar, it allows the Dublin-born artist to let the listener see the craft behind the pop sensibility of her music.

By putting the vocals and lyrics at its emotional and sonic centre, Kiss Big allows us a peek into Reddy’s creative process. Stripped bare of the artist’s already often-minimal arrangements, framed only by warm but unadorned production, it nevertheless has an enormous emotive impact.

The most significant aspect of Kiss Big is that it also gives us a place in which to place her sound: the classic songwriting tradition of Carole King, Leonard Cohen, and Jeff Buckley can be heard here and throughout the album.

With intimate stories that become expansive due to the universality of the moments and memories behind the lyrics, Kiss Big is music for lovers and lost love. It may put Ailbhe Reddy on the outside of modern pop trends, but tracks like this are destined to live on, as music to be cherished and shared.

The Kiss Big album is out now via Don Giovanni Records and can be picked up in CD and vinyl formats on Bandcamp. To tie in with the LP release, Reddy has lined up in-store and gig dates in the UK, as well as appearances in Ireland and New York.

For full details of those in-store acoustic sets, as well as upcoming full-band gigs, as well as all the latest artist news, head to Ailbhe Reddy’s Instagram and Facebook socials.

Header photo by Andy Sheridan