Kiffie - This Brings Life
Review by Karl Magi
Overall Album Impressions
Kiffie’s "This Brings Life" delves deep into shattered emotional terrain with reflections of lost love and the pain it can leave behind. Kiffie’s raw and vulnerable vocals, stripped-down, honest songwriting, and intriguing synth choices unflinchingly examine the fallout of broken and unrequited love.
At the centre of "This Brings Life", Kiffie’s voice sits with purpose and force. Its delicacy belies its ability to pierce to the heart with feeling and burn with fierce light. A pure wall of sensation fills every crevice of the lead singer's performances and punches home the message of each song with clarity and earnestness.
All of the words that Kiffie crafts on "This Brings Life" cut through to the central emotional message of each song. His songwriting is stripped down and free of sleight of hand, simply exploring the painful reality of love lost and affection that is unreciprocated. When there are moments of hope, those moments become incredibly affecting.
In the synth palette, there are tones that are harshly technical and others that touch with soft fragility as they express the melodies which capture even more emotion. Sometimes Kiffie leans into the computerized, technological qualities of the synths, and in others he emphasizes more rounded and organic sounds that deepen the feelings within each track.
My Favourite Songs Analyzed
“Shattered Mirrors” spills quiescent light through shards of synth that flash silvery reflections into a thousand refractive pieces. Trembling, varied foundational tones shift like dark undercurrents as a refrain of ghostly notes moves like prismatic, soft light breaking the night. Melancholy and pain surge from notes like strings that climb with uncertainty and sensations of instability.
Drifting with a vague sense of unease, I find myself floating in a void lit by tiny pieces of incandescence ever falling into the shadows below them. Irradiating tenderness brushes like a soothing hand, contrasting with the rippling motion around it. Tripping tones fall further, like jagged pieces moving in endless motion before the track closes.
Hypnotically undulating tones brush over ticking percussive sounds as “No Denial” comes to life. Wide walls of synth pulsate while Kiffie encapsulates affection and acceptance, filling me with sensations of caring and readiness to move forward.
A melodic line sails with heartfelt peace, permeating me with loving emotion. Drums continue to patter while Kiffie reaches high with his broad range, driving home all of the ferocious emotion as towering note patterns flash and drums touch quietly.
True belief in the song's subject pours from the vocals as continual waves wash below, the notes tangling into soft melancholy while echoes reverberate. Trance-inducing sounds repeat while percussion kicks, as Kiffie’s disconnected vocals float with mingled pain and passion before the track closes.
While our storyteller wants to see the song's subject smiling again, he acknowledges, "It doesn't have to be because of me." Perhaps he only wants "to see you winning again," but he realizes that it doesn't have to be with him. He'd love to hear the other person laughing again, "and you don't have to laugh along with me."
He might desire to "feel our fire again," but he wonders if the other person will "stay and burn with me." In conclusion, he says, "So if it comes to that, no looking back, no denial, make a promise."
“Ambitions” grows in a luminous cloud that expands into an elegiac melody, echoing in phosphorescent melancholy before a slow rhythmic throb is joined by a marching snare drum. A feeling of loss balanced with acceptance and love moves through Kiffie’s emotionally alive vocals, wrapping around my heart as it does so.
Underpinning weight vibrates while tones rise high and reverberate with piercing emotion, and a blinding brightness evokes hope elevated above tragedy. Sharp snares crackle as drifting mournfulness contrasts with well-wishing and respectful caring. A deep well of emotion spills from Kiffie’s honest performance and gossamer voice before the song comes to an end.
While the narrator says he can “give you anything that’s mine to share,” and that shows his caring, he understands that if he can’t make the song’s subject happy, “sometimes love just isn’t enough.” He’d rather let them go so they can achieve “all your dreams, ambitions and love.”
Chimes with cobweb lightness drift with distantly trailing, broken fragility as vocals breathe life into “Little Names.” Cosmically twisting tones spin as Kiffie’s bereft voice reflects reverent affection, carried out with painful emptiness while glockenspiel casts starlight.
Moving feeling grips me as Kiffie expresses all of the hurt love that fills the lyrics, while vibrating notes wander like lost stars before roundness swells below. Tremulous notes evoke all of the shivering of painful, rejected love as the drums keep a beat.
Flowing out into vast emptiness, delicate notes weave a filigree full of gentleness as the music glides slowly past. All of the worshipful depth of the relationship swells from Kiffie before the song finishes.
Our storyteller felt loved in the song subject's arms as he "whispered little names." The other person is described by many words, but "I still worship you the same." While he is filled with sadness at having to part with her, even if they talk all night "making plans for your tomorrow," he adds that she'll always be his light.
Bidding her "good night my princess, my saviour, my queen," the narrator speaks of his love for her beautiful patience and "in worship, majesty." They climbed mountains together as they "wondered how to be" and walked together as they were "boundless as the sea."
In conclusion, our storyteller says that it still feels so good to hold hands with the song's subject, "like palmer's palms do kiss," as does spending time together. He pleads, "Will you please remember this?"
“This Brings Life” spills melancholy into reverberant openness, vibrating with slow expanses that spread outward with deep power, as a sensation of unmoored elegance mingles with the hurt. Extended melodic tones carry tentative affection while tumbling percussion cascades in rattling motion below. The contrast between haunting tones and power is one that I find hard to resist.
Lonely notes undulate with loss and heartache while drumbeats trip below and a bass swell floats underneath. Hypnotic and full of meditative sensations, the melodic pattern is supported by rapidly shivering sounds that flow with steady pulsation.
As rhythmic subdivision occurs, more unsettled feelings emanate from the tremulous synth. Whirls of rising, graceful notes spin while a bereft feeling permeates the track above the evenly pulsing drums, as gigantic walls of dark sound snarl to balance the gentleness of the higher notes.
A majestic tonal pattern descends as spectral notes begin to drift and the drum heartbeat brings “Kingdom” to life as Kiffie seizes the depths of need and passionate devotion flowing from the lyrics. Every ounce of wanting that he musters in his voice is believable and vulnerable in a way that I find compelling.
Tones begin to float alone, descending with hurt and tinges of hope, while the drum pulse continues to slip and a tidal sound roams in spreading waves. A ghostly dream of love comes through Kiffie’s vocal performance with total conviction as the hollow panpipes transmit a melody that combines blazing passion with painful tenderness before the music ends.
Praying to the song's subject not to leave, the narrator says, "If you answer me, I'll follow you for eternity." He says he'll beg if she wants him to, if only "you show me now what I need to do." He goes on to say, "Kingdom come, thy will be done, it's you I seek, you are the only one."
Our storyteller adds, "By your command, I worship you as you demand," while hoping to be told if they have a chance together. He wants the other person to "provide for me with your bounty" and keep him held safely and loved forever.
Conclusion
"This Brings Life" is an excellent example of what makes Kiffie’s work unique. He eschews overly complex sounds and flowery words for clear, vulnerable, and moving expression, along with sounds that are ear-catching and deepen the sensations within each song.
