Kennedy Ashlyn recorded her debut album as SRSQ, Unreality, following the untimely 2016 death of her former Them Are Us Too bandmate Cash Askew. The poignant, affecting record celebrated the bond between the two friends, with the overall tone being thankful rather than gloomy and funereal. SRSQ's second album was created during an intense period of self-discovery, following Ashlyn's ADHD and bipolar disorder diagnoses. Ashlyn wrote and performed the entire album herself, with each song including up to 100 individual tracks, ...
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Kennedy Ashlyn recorded her debut album as SRSQ, Unreality, following the untimely 2016 death of her former Them Are Us Too bandmate Cash Askew. The poignant, affecting record celebrated the bond between the two friends, with the overall tone being thankful rather than gloomy and funereal. SRSQ's second album was created during an intense period of self-discovery, following Ashlyn's ADHD and bipolar disorder diagnoses. Ashlyn wrote and performed the entire album herself, with each song including up to 100 individual tracks, consisting of live drums, synths, strings, and guitar. The music has less in common with the icy darkwave of Unreality and more of a resemblance to the commercial end of dream pop (the Cranberries, '90s Cocteau Twins), with traces of Ray of Light present as well. Song like "Dead Loss" and "Winter, Slowly" are filled with dizzying, wide-open pop hooks, while Ashlyn's lyrics question the causes of her depression and isolation. The largely weightless "It Always Rains" expresses the desire to be free of pain, and "Saved for Summer" looks forward to moving past a period of uncertainty that felt like a waste of time. "Used to Love" is an openhearted plea to a former romantic partner, containing the album's most direct lyrics ("I know that you used to love me/Why don't you love me?"). "Fear" (a desperate prayer for redemption), the Twin Peaks -y "Abyss," and "Élan Vital" (which disguises harrowing suicidal thoughts in airy hooks) are more existential, and while they seem to come from a position of hopelessness, the record ends with "Someday I Will Bask in the Sun," an unabashed message of hope and transcendence set to rolling jungle breakbeats. Even more personal than SRSQ's debut, Ever Crashing feels more ambitious and cathartic, yet also reaches a new level of accessibility for Ashlyn's music. ~ Paul Simpson, Rovi
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