Conjuring the spirits of folk writers from a time past are Damn the Kid, a folk band creating a tone that feels like being followed closely by a figure only seen in nightmares. Their newest four song EP, Take the Bait, is a beautifully haunting album that explores ideas of love, freedom, the hunter and the hunted, rejection and acceptance.
Take the Bait pulls the listener in with soft acoustic tones and beautifully sung lyrics. But once you are in this world, you realize not everything is as it should be. Guitars in reverse, hard panned vocals fading in and out, and warbly instruments suggest that the listener should keep their guard up.
These eerie textures exist throughout the EP. Track two, “Chained,” has a chaotic guitar solo halfway through that starts as a textural element but it slowly builds until it takes almost the entire mix, like a panic attack that starts at a frightening level but slowly becomes more and more terrifying until it just disappears, and you're back to homeostasis.
When I write about the unsettling feelings that exist on this album I don’t mean that they are offputting or abrasive. They are mysterious and enchanting, a siren song. The height of this atmosphere is “Sleepaway Camp.” The beginning guitar played through a Leslie amp with the soft vocals over top sets the tone for a surreal world. The background vocals in the second half of the second verse make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up: they are absolutely beautiful and fit perfectly in the context of this song and the album as a whole.
You can hear this album anywhere you stream music, follow the band on instagram for details on shows and future releases.