by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
Just a few months back in the Spring of this year we shared Mr. Husband’s “Living In Dreams” music video, a goofy clip that highlighted a genuine fuzzy ripper. The project of Kenneth Husband aka Kenny Tompkins (Yellow K Records) is showing a very different side on the upcoming Ocean Pines, his latest album set for release October 26th via Forged Artifacts (Alexander, Scrunchies, Dweller). Far from the humor and cartoonish joys of Silvertone, Ocean Pines is reflective and personal, a lo-fi recording with soft acoustics and gentle songwriting. It’s a hard left turn, but honestly, Mr. Husband has never sounded better. Stark and peeled back to the simplest of states, Tompkins’ songs work incredibly well as minimalist folk.
“1991 Bible Study,” the second single from the record, recalls a time spent in a cult as Tompkins tells it and the lingering effects. Recorded to old sun-fried tapes, there’s a great texture to his doubled vocal harmonies and the reminiscent lyrics. As he dives into tales of playing of “light as a feather, stiff as a board” only to be told he should fear the devil, the refrain of “and I don’t know what it meant” weighs a ton as your mind wanders over the lyrics and the setting so wonderfully set.
Speaking the track, Tompkins shared:
“In the 1991 my family was in a cult. We broke free but the aftermath showed me some terrible darkness and horrifying truth as a young pup. My heart has always been broken from this experience and "1991 Bible Study" is about that feeling. The memories were weighing down on me one day and it just fell out of my mouth in about 2 minutes. Every word of the lyrics comes straight out of my life but I hope I boiled it down to something bigger than my own experience.”
Mr. Husband’s Ocean Pines is out October 26th via Forged Artifacts.