Kendra Morris "Next" LP

Blue and Yellow Galaxy Swirl Vinyl 

With her fourth full-length album of original material, idiosyncratic singer/songwriter Kendra Morris invites you to join her in the DIY kaleidoscope world of Next. Morris’s latest record for Karma Chief strips away the veneers of layered production and slick sounds to create an album that may be Kendra at her most authentic, one in which the creative process is vibrant, beautiful, and messy, buoyed by heart and the imperfectly perfect now.

A concept album in reverse, Next ties Kendra’s cast of characters (including her band: guitarist Supremo “Premo” Massiv, bassist Monti Miramonti, and drummer Chauncey Yearwood) to a vintage board game in the spirit of Milton Bradley’s finest retro dice-rolling moments. Travel along Next’s block-to-block journey, and this universe reveals itself as a mosaic of corals, creams, and pale lilac tiles. You can hear the sonic palette resonate with Morris’s influences and inspirations. Decades of New York sounds and voices bend and blend at the seams of these tracks—a world where the Brill Building and Warhol’s Factory thrive on the same block while Blondie and the Frightnrs explore rocksteady sounds. Doo-wop and boom-bap soundtrack a UHF network’s worth of cut-and-paste stylings, all the while paced by Morris, an artist equally at home behind the lens as she is in front of a microphone.

Next is an album of firsts. The album’s extended gestation provided Morris with an opportunity to explore her ideas and demos. “I’ve been living in this record for over a year,” says Morris. “I’ve always been a writer, and [Next] was a chance to write a record from scratch on my own.” The New York (by way of Loveland, Ohio) production is co-helmed by Kendra Morris and Leroi Conroy. Its production trades the steel and chrome sleekness for a more personal and scaled-down sound, exposing the songcraft. While earlier albums were awash in IMAX-level cinematic sweep, Next explores Kendra’s perspective with a handheld 8mm kinetic energy, all the while showcasing the dynamic, soulful range of her powerhouse voice — equal parts Roberta Flack, Betty Wright, and Minnie Riperton.