Madeline Kenney has a new record called Sucker’s Lunch coming out next Friday, but ahead of that she’s shared one final teaser in new song and video “Picture of You”. On the song’s inspiration, she says:
“I had this brief moment where I was looking at someone I love and I realized that I could never truly know everything they had been through, or understand their whole life and experiences from their perspective, even if by loving them I felt like I was getting so close to that kind of understanding. It broke my heart in a way. I wish I could know and hold everything for a person but I can’t, and at the same time I wish I could do that for the past versions of myself. Maybe that’s more attainable.”
The depths of emotion that Kenney is investigating are perfectly captured in “Picture of You” with soothing synth and washes of guitar, which are held aloft by a simple rhythm section, allowing us to step inside her production. Lyrically, she picks up these ideas with simple observations; looking at a picture of her lover as a child, thinking about what it must have been like to be the mother, a torrent of emotions flooding out of this quiet moment. As she sings the chorus, you can feel the strain and weight of the realisation of a whole life landing on Kenney, but she manages to push through it and accept that there’s still plenty of love to be created in the future – even if it will be difficult, it’s worth it.
Madeline Kenney’s new album Sucker’s Lunch is out next Friday, July 31, via Carpark. You can find Kenney on Bandcamp, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
