Music Review // Kate Fenner "Dead Reckoning"

https://katefenner.bandcamp.com/album/dead-reckoning

"Dead Reckoning" opens up with a piano number- full of the voice of Kate Fenner with those piano keys behind the vocals.   This album is full of percussion and could be thought of as smooth jazz as well as easy listening.   Throughout these songs though, the voice of Kate Fenner always seems to be at the forefront of the music itself.

Something about these songs feels almost Bohemian, like the type of sound you would hear at a coffee shop.   But yet as we get into the song "That Fire", which is about halfway through the album, the tone changes to one of almost metal.  It becomes a much bigger feel in a different way, but overall the music remains so powerful.  

As this music goes from seemingly one extreme to another without really leaving the comfort of its own sound, you can feel like Kate Fenner has many influences and they all come out on "Dead Reckoning" in different ways and in different songs.  "Cautionary Tale" has a more radio friendly type of pop sound, for instance.

The way the percussion kicks into "The Hawk" feels mechanical, almost industrial, but then that smooth bass finds its way back on "Son of a Gun".  The final song- "Firefly"- is a fitting ballad to give the album a proper send off.   Though these songs remain within the same sound throughout, they are not afraid to explore and that makes the sound of Kate Fenner feel so full.