“The Sunset Violent” – Mount Kimbie Album Review

Review by Josh Maxi –

Everyone loves a good reunion in the world of music, and Mount Kimbie gave us exactly that on their latest album, The Sunset Violent. Released on April 5, 2024, the band from London, formerly a duo consisting of college friends Kai Campos and Dom Maker, expanded their roster with new members Andrea Balency-Béarn and Marc Pell.

Along with the members comes a drastically different sound from their previous projects that one would find a little more fitting for a nightclub or rave. Instead, listeners new and old are greeted with an almost ethereal Khruangbin-esque vocalist accompanied by very textbook indie band instrumentation on the first track, “The Trail.” Though these elements can seem foreign to Mount Kimbie’s genre-defying discography, things fall into place when frequent collaborator Archy Marshall, better known as King Krule, joins the party.

He has two official features on songs “Boxing” and “Empty and Silent” but I could’ve sworn he was on “Shipwreck”, my personal favorite of the album. He delivers his expected jazzy, raw, soulful ballads. In their previous collaborations, Krule usually does his own thing, but over something a little out of his usual bag, but it seems like they met on a common ground on The Sunset Violent, and neither side missed.

I’d give the project a strong 4 out of 5 stars given that this was Mount Kimbie’s first jab at a drastically different genre, and was executed quite well at that.

 

Featured Image from Amazon.com