Irish punk poet Sinead O’Brien released her excellent debut EP Drowning in Blessings last September, but she returns today with “Kid Stuff”, a signifier of new intent moving forward. O’Brien introduces the song by saying:
“‘Kid Stuff’ shows up all different tones on different days. There’s something alive in it which cannot be caught or told. It is direct but complex; it contains chapters. This feels like our purest and most succinct expression yet.”
Working once again with Dan Carey, Sinead O’Brien’s shape-shifting poetry has never felt so alive or momentous as it does on “Kid Stuff”. As usual with the Irish wordsmith, we seem to move from moment to moment and scene to scene with each new line; for the uninitiated it might seem like she’s spewing stanzas on shuffle, but with O’Brien there is a determination to her delivery that assures you she’s got every word exactly where it needs to be. Her band of Julian Hanson (guitar) and Oscar Robertson (drums) help maintain the thread between all her fearsome images, and perhaps more than ever before, let themselves get more expressive with splashier drumming and some muscular riffing. This adds gravity to O’Brien’s already weighty words, and as a group they drag us through the fluid poetry, the urgency growing with each new measure – despite its name, this is certainly not “Kid Stuff”.
The video for “Kid Stuff”, directed and choreographed by Saskia Dixie, takes the disorienting nature of the song even further. Watch it below or listen to “Kid Stuff” on streaming platforms.
“Kid Stuff” is out via Chess Club. Sinead O’Brien also has these dates ahead:
1-3 Jul | VIDA Festival, Vilanova i la Geltrú, Barcelona
14 Jul | Heaven, London *Warmduscher support
3 Sep | Moseley Folk Festival, Birmingham
4 Sep | Deaf Institute, Manchester Psych Festival
18 Sep | O2 Academy Leicester (Room 1 or 2), Wide Eyed Festival
18 Oct | Hare & Hounds, Birmingham
19 Oct | McHuills, Glasgow
20 Oct | YES (Basement), Manchester
22 Oct | Workmans, Dublin
23 Oct | Phase One, Liverpool
24 Oct | Hyde Park Book Club, Leeds
25 Oct | Rough Trade, Bristol
28 Oct | Chats Palace, London
18 Jan | O2 Academy Brixton *IDLES support
