Album Review: Whitney K, Two Years

During these Unprecedented Times™, there has been a shortage of stories. Gone are the days where you could gather in the office kitchen to hear about the questionable choices of your co-worker’s roommate. Friends don’t regale you with their travel stories and you can’t go out into the world to collect your own wild tales. We are all Elaine Benes: we sit and we stare. We do nothing.

Konner Whitney (aka Whitney K)’s Two Years is full of the stories that you have been craving to hear. On Two Years, the world is expansive and everyday feels ripe for adventure. He sings about bleary nights out, road trips, and being in love. “Last night I shaved my head and pride returned,” Whitney sings before stepping out for the evening on “Last Night #2.”

What adds an air of excitement to Whitney’s avant-country songs is the fact that they are consistently on the move: they whine, they wheeze, they rock, and they roll. Grimy guitar din fills the punky “Trans-Canada Oil Boom Blues” which sounds like a ramshackle train barrelling down the tracks and while the air is slightly cleaning on “Cowboy City Rockers,” it has a honky-tonk melody that also tumbles mischievously out of one bar and into the next.

On “The Weekend,” Whitney’s sing-speak vocals are tangled in the slow drone of an organ as if he is delivering a homily. Faithfully, we gather around Whitney, mouths agape, to hear what he has to say and he assures us: “Don’t worry, you’ve got a friend in me.”

Two Years was released February 19, 2021 on Maple Death Records.
Listen to it here