What if I told you Madeline Kenney’s A New Reality Mind—the obvious star of this year’s crop of Bay Area albums in 2023—could get better? I tend to think sequels are superfluous and unnecessary, because why mess with a good thing? But The Same Again: ANRM (Tiny Telephone Session) is a welcome exception, the masterful album transposed entirely onto piano and nothing else (save some friends to sing backup).
In this new form, the album takes on a different, though not totally different, tenor. The Same Again spotlights Kenney’s songwriting first and foremost. And while the original packed a stark emotional punch to begin with, this version further highlights the feeling behind these songs. For example: I love the way she hits the word “wall” in “Superficial Conversations,” and with little else to surround it it’s just so effective here. Her delivery is so expressive, and the music frames it so well, that these sound like the middle-of-the-second-act wistful ballad from a well-loved musical.
