Minks

As Minks, Shaun "Sonny" Kilfoyle has spent most of his time in the band working with various friends. In 2011, he released his debut album, By the Hedge, a dark collection of post-punk-tinged pop that fell in line nicely with the rest of his peers on Captured Tracks. Uprooting from Brooklyn to Long Island, Kilfoyle chose to make Minks into a one-man project for full-length number two. Hiring producer Mark Verbos, the pair worked entirely on Tides End together, concentrating on making a brighter, perfect pop record. Tides End doesn't take long to reveal its mood swing, with the spry synth pop of "Romans." Previous funereal guitar tones have been noticeably replaced by jangle and synthesizers, which assist Kilfoyle's more positive tenor. That isn't to say the miserable won't find something in Tides End. Minks is still very much isolationist music, but Kilfoyle attempts to see the light, assuring us that "the sun is gonna shine" and "everything's fine, everything's cool." To put it into perspective, if By the Hedges was Minks channelling Joy Division, Tides End is more New Order ("Doomed and Cool," quite literally), in both its disposition and potentail to reach a wider audience.