Last updated: 4 days ago
Like all great art, the songs in Kenny Taylor’s debut album Daylight produced by Aidan I. Allen, transform individual appetites into expressions of commonality. It’s this articulation of intimacies that invite the listener into particular scenes and sensations. Take the opening lines of “Like Daddy Did,” possibly the most tender song of the album, written in adoring admiration of a father: “Daddy always had a way of fixin’ things / I never could understand. / Ever since I was a little boy / just tried to lend a helping hand. / I always held the flashlight, / the most important job of the night / so daddy could see what he was doing.”
Taylor possesses a casual and exuberant linguistic tendency, exemplified by throwaways, such as the bridge of “Carolina Tags,” about a lover finding expression for that love long after the partner leaves. In the same song, Taylor, always aware of emotional tone, lightens sentimentality with humor.
Much like Jason Isbell, Taylor delivers his lyrics wrapped in warmth. His voice is bluesy and blowsy, a rough and untidy perfection.
There is much to admire about Daylight, and there is much to cherish of Taylor’s talents. His levity and his severity, his vulnerability and his callousness, his force, his pungent melodies, his guitar’s ability to take songs where lyrics cannot go, his vivid profusion of imagery, the way his voice quivers with feeling — but especially the way everything is flittered through with love.
~Jack McCarthy
Taylor possesses a casual and exuberant linguistic tendency, exemplified by throwaways, such as the bridge of “Carolina Tags,” about a lover finding expression for that love long after the partner leaves. In the same song, Taylor, always aware of emotional tone, lightens sentimentality with humor.
Much like Jason Isbell, Taylor delivers his lyrics wrapped in warmth. His voice is bluesy and blowsy, a rough and untidy perfection.
There is much to admire about Daylight, and there is much to cherish of Taylor’s talents. His levity and his severity, his vulnerability and his callousness, his force, his pungent melodies, his guitar’s ability to take songs where lyrics cannot go, his vivid profusion of imagery, the way his voice quivers with feeling — but especially the way everything is flittered through with love.
~Jack McCarthy
