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Music

Mo Kenney's "Mountains to the Mess" Is Sensually Refreshing

Her sultry vocals and the guitar’s fuzzy, tortured whine makes “Mountains to the Mess” a sexy, mysterious song.

Photo by Matt Williams

Canadian singer-songwriter Mo Kenney has been playing guitar since she was eleven, writing songs since she was sixteen, and now at 25 has been nominated for a Juno Award for her album In My Dreams, the second release of hers. It was released in Canada in 2014 and has slowly been making its release debut around the world. It will be available in the US on April 29th.

Kenney draws inspiration from a number of artists, including Black Sabbath and Elliott Smith, to create a spooky, sensual sound reminiscent of artists like Feist. It’s easy to imagine her latest single, “Mountains to the Mess,” playing at the end of a Noah Baumbach or Wes Anderson film. It captures the loneliness of life as a musician, mixing blues and indie rock, an electric guitar pumping through the final moments of the song, invigorating but retrospective. Her sultry vocals and the guitar’s fuzzy, tortured whine makes “Mountains to the Mess” a sexy, mysterious song. Of the song, Kenney says:

"The song is mostly me reflecting a little on being a musician for a living, and a little about myself as a person. It's reflective of where my head was at, at the time. Of course now it is somewhere else. I'm pretty introspective. I am always looking inward for inspiration, this song is no exception. When I started writing songs I used writing as a sort of therapy, I still use it as therapy."

Take a listen below, and be on the lookout for In My Dreams, out in the US on April 29.