It can be easy to take the music of Lindsey Rae Radice, also known as PYNKIE, on face value. Just glancing at the SoundCloud page for half a second can give you a lighthearted and sweet impression of this New Jersey indie pop artist. There are cutesy emoticons and descriptors, smiley old photographs and an album cover that features a picture of a baby with a guitar drawn into his/her hands. It’s after your first listen of the album neoteny do you get a clearer idea of the kind of depth she is offering and the importance of this aesthetic. The warm guitar tones and soft drumming create lullaby-like atmospheres, quaint tunes like “Dog in the Sun” are full of sun-gleaming vocals and genuine affection in the lyrics. But there are turns when Radice points this bright outlook inward and lets the radiance fade. Her music is full of bewilderment, anxiously trying to maintain childlike exuberance as the grown-up world continues to push “maturity” through you. It leads to moments like the outro to “~Ghost~”, where the gorgeous acoustic arrangements become ghostly, alien sounds that, after so many upbeat songs, assume an uncomfortable aura. Stream PYNKIE’s album below and catch her performing at Baby’s All Right on August 13. -Tucker Pennington
