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Jul 28, 2020 By Christopher Roberts Madeline Kenney

Oakland, CA-based singer/songwriter Madeline Kenney is releasing a new album, Sucker’s Lunch, this Friday via Carpark. Now she has shared one last pre-release single from it, “White Window Light.” She has also shared a new live video for the song. Check out both the studio and live versions below.

Wye Oak (Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack) produced the album and both members contribute backing vocals to the studio version of “White Window Light,” as does Taylor Vick of Boy Scouts, Stephen Steinbrink, and Olivia Gerber. Vick and Gerber also feature in the live video.

Kenney had this to say in a press release: “This, to me, is a bonafide love song. It may not come off that way (I’m aware that the first line is ‘well what’s the point’), but that’s because I had some hard and weird conversations about love and they wound up as lyrics. So many friends sang on the chorus. That made it so special and beautiful to record. I filmed this on a tripod at Starline Social Club in Oakland—notice our 6 ft triangle of safety. It felt amazing to sing with my friends again.”

Previously Kenney shared “Double Hearted” along with a lyric video as well as the album’s first single, “Sucker,” via a self-directed video for the track. “Sucker” featured guest vocals from Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner and was #1 on our Songs of the Week list. “Double Hearted” was also one of our Songs of the Week. Then she shared “Picture of You,” also via a video, which was also #1 on our Songs of the Week list.

Sucker’s Lunch is Kenney’s third album, the follow-up to 2018’s Perfect Shapes and her 2017-released debut album, Night Night at the First Landing (which was produced by Toro Y Moi’s Chaz Bear). Perfect Shapes was produced by Jenn Wasner of Wye Oak and Flock of Dimes. Wasner returns as producer for Sucker’s Lunch, but this time she’s joined by her Wye Oak bandmate Andy Stack (aka Joyero). The album was recorded in Durham, Oakland, and San Francisco.

A previous press release explained that “thematically, Sucker’s Lunch sees Kenney soberly contrasting the risks and rewards of falling in love, eventually deciding to dive headfirst into her own foolishness and relish in the unknowing.”

Kenney elaborated in the press release: “I’m not interested in something easy or immediately apparent. My experience writing these songs wasn’t easy, it was painful and difficult. I was terrified of falling in love, and as much as I’d like to write a sticky sweet song for someone, it doesn’t come naturally to me. Instead I wanted to explore the tiny moments; sitting alone in my room guessing what the other person was thinking, spiraling into a maze of logical reasons to bail and finding my way out again. When I spoke with friends about the theme of the ‘idiot,’ it became apparent that everyone understood that feeling and was relieved to hear it echoed in someone else.”

In 2019 Kenney shared the new song “Helpless” as part of a split 7-inch with Flock of Dimes.

Read our recent COVID-19 Quarantine Artist Check In interview with Kenney.

Read Kenney’s Underrated Album post for us on Paul Simon’s One Trick Pony.

Read our 2017 Pleased to Meet You interview with Madeline Kenney.

Read our 2017 Artist Survey interview with Madeline Kenney.

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