Kindness - World, You Need A Change Of Mind
One of UK electronic music's all-time greatest albums, delivered by one of its most enigmatic figures
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I’ll admit from the off that I was late to this album. Not by a massive amount; I was actually retained to work on its follow-up, and, not knowing anything about the artist, I went back to look up any previous releases, only to clock what an incredible record I had missed.
If you’ve never heard of Kindness, I wouldn’t blame you. Their career has, to me anyway, felt like a catalogue of missed opportunities. Certainly when the artist signed to Polydor, having released singles on Moshi Moshi (among others), there was certainly hype around what was to come.
In a tale that borders on cliché these days, I gather between Kindness signing to Polydor and the label actually releasing their album, there had been some A&R changes at the top, and the new person was perhaps not as keen on this album as their predecessor. And so, like so many great records caught up in A&R politics, World, You Need A Change Of Mind (I’ll abbreviate it to WYNACOM from here) was under-promoted and consequently, Kindness never seemed to achieve the stardom I’d say they absolutely deserve.
I live in hope that history will recognise what a poor decision that was, as WYNACOM is a record that is a genuine stroke of genius. Covering funk, 4/4 slo-mo house, pop, disco and a wealth of points in between, this is a record that is genuinely tough to describe, such is its originality. It is an album that is the product of an eclectic, genius mind, one which deftly channels all those tastes into ten songs that set a whole new bar.
Before talking about the songs, I think it would be wrong not to recognise just how great this album sounds. The production is phenomenal; crisp, slick, powerful and punchy, it is a true headphone listen of an album, something you just keep hearing new things in.
Without wishing to take away from the artist, the involvement of Philippe Zdar has to be mentioned, as I feel his influence and sonic fingerprint sits across this, operating as he did as producer, mixer and engineer. Zdar, who sadly passed away back in 2019, was one half of legendary French duo Cassius, not to mention both Motorbass and La Funk Mob before that. His work was always phenomenal, and his production chops spoke for themselves. Ergo, his assistance on this album just helps elevate this from “amazing” to “one for the ages”.
But what about the music itself?
WYNACOM mood-hops from song to song, something I feel is wildly under-utilised in electronic music albums these days. Artists like Leftfield thought nothing of traversing progressive house, straight-up techno, hip hop-BPM breaks and more, all in the one album. In the last ten years that felt less the case, though it looks like things are moving back toward eclecticism of late, which I applaud.
WYNACOM starts with SEOD, which itself starts with a first movement that aims to set the mood a little. The opening 90 seconds deliver crisp minimal funk with the kind of guitar solo generally heard on 80s pop rock classics (maybe). Beyond that however, the song pivots into a tapping percussion and pads, an 80s bass tone hitting out the melody, albeit with even lower subs catching you off guard and really rounding out the sonic effect.
Something I’d be remiss not to mention at this point is the incredible dub version Zdar delivered as a b-side to this track when it originally appeared as a self-released 12”. It lays bare some of the production elements and does a lot to showcase just how much is going on here, not least that bubbling bassline:
From SEOD we move onto the first cover version on the album, albeit one few people may have recognised off the bat. Swingin’ Party was originally by The Replacements, and in their hands it is a guitar-led, gentle number with production reflective of its 1985 vintage. It’s an American indie classic, no two ways about it:
If you want a masterclass in how to transform a track, then look no further than what Kindness does to this song. From that gentle, lulling original, they flip the song into an urgent funk track, the rhythm of which is a million miles from the original. Alongside it, a gentle hiss is only perforated by that percussive section, giving a slightly woozy, whooshing feeling to everything.
Couple that with the reverb-heavy, layered harmony vocals and gentle bubbling melodic synth elements, and this is a masterclass in flipping a song into something altogether new:
As if that wasn’t enough of a cover version, Kindness next moves into a track that had any UK person surely doing a double-take in disbelief.
Anyone Can Fall In Love is known by any Brit of a certain vintage as a vocal version of the theme song from Eastenders, the perennial soap opera that’s been on UK TV since the early 80s. The original single, delivered by then-main-star Anita Dobson, added a vocal and was, shall we say, an acquired taste:
In Kindness’s hands, the song is flipped, entirely unironically, into a slower, lilting funk gem. The elastic bass melody drives the song alongside the layered harmonies (this time including female vocals as well as the artists own, which largely exist as background vox), and the end result is quite brilliant. The twee, cheesy aspects of the original are vanquished entirely, and you can only sit and wonder at how this has managed to happen. It manages to prove that in the right hands, the song is quite brilliant:
Gee Wiz follows next, another original composition. Once again, 80s funk guitars set the tone, coupled with ambient pads and vocals. On the whole, the track serves almost as a kind of palette cleanser for what is to follow.
Gee Up snaps the tempo back up to dancefloor-funky levels, with a bassline I’d imagine Daft Punk would be jealous of. Coupled with the chicken-pluck funk guitars, it is the kind of thing Nile Rodgers might well be at home on. The whole track continues to swell, adding in subtle tones before the crescendo of the claps and guitar melodies deliver the song’s peak, before fading out. It can never fail to lift your spirits.
The next song, House, is arguably the highlight of the album. Powered by a sample from Ace Frehley’s solo cover of New York Groove, specifically that stomping rhythm, this is a juxtaposition of a reflective soulful vocal with that punching percussive foundation, peaking with the song’s earworm chorus:
I can't give you all that you need
But I'll give you all I can feel
That’s Alright follows, and is a wonder of crashing melodies and drama. Sax leads the song in alongside gentle synths, again bringing 80s vibes to mind, before a slamming, squealing urgent funk drops, courtesy of Trouble Funk, whose track Still Smokin’ was not actually sampled but replayed due to some clearance nightmares. Not that you can tell:
That sample use - gloriously original in its placement here - makes for one of the heavier songs on the record.
Cyan comes next, and again this is another gem of flipped loops and off-kilter funk touches. The percussive loop screams disco, and yet somehow it just isn’t obvious. It’s as if the artist sampled the back two bars of a four bar loop; it’s a groove in constant progress because it never quite loops back to the start.
As with House, Cyan is another juxtaposition of urgent funk percussion and more mellow synths and melody, again with that soulful vocal. Perhaps this is where the album’s genius lies, in colliding soulful touches with propulsive funk rhythms. Any which way, it works, and this is another highlight on a near-perfect album.
Penultimate track Bombastic is a gentle lounge jazz number, albeit shot through the unique prism of Kindness’s vision. It ultimately stands as a recitation of the artist’s heroes, name-dropping Paul Westerberg, Kate Bush, Neil Young, Nile Rodgers, Brian Wilson and more. It also serves as another stylistic right-turn, and it works perfectly.
Final track Doigsong is another elastic funk track, the bassline winding around the Rodgers-esque guitars to deliver the song’s melody. At all points on this track the bassist sounds like they’re having a blast, grooving all over the track and roving up and down the neck melodically whilst soulful vocals again layer up and sing out. Credit to the guitarist too, whose sound once again reflects the French players brought in, presumably via Zdar, delivering that sound so reminiscent at points of the French Touch sound.
For me, Kindness remains under-recognised, at least among Joe Public. They strike me as an artist’s artist, confirmed perhaps by the long list of collaborators who seem to be keen to work with them. Since WYNACOM other albums have emerged, but by that point I’d slightly tuned out. Not for any reason I might add - as ever, one just gets pulled in other directions. But to me, the fact that Kindness is not a much, much bigger artist is something of a shame. They deserve more, because the talent is simply plain to see.
Oh yes! This is such a good album!!!