Valerie Myers
Contributing Writer
American rock indie band, Rainbow Kitten Surprise (RKS), released their fifth album, “bones,” on Friday, Sept. 26. Despite an album release only the year before, the album doesn’t feel rushed. More specific than their last album, which explored life’s general ups and downs, RKS focuses their new album on relationship struggle and the struggle of falling in and out of relationships.
“bones” is a good album, but just doesn’t have the lyrical depth of other RKS albums, such as “Seven + Mary” and “How to: Friend, Love, Freefall” to be as successful.
Opening track “Friendly Fire” uses sudden shifts in tempo and lyrical pacing to explore the lasting feelings after a relationship- both longing and anger. The central idea of the song is that all things change with time, including relationships. Ela Melo, lead singer, uses repeated verses such as “time tells all” to express her nostalgia.
Despite the opening’s songs impressive, flowy lyrics, it has fewer than 200,000 streams as of Sept. 28. This is significantly fewer than many of its album’s songs, even despite the recent release, including “100 Summers” and “Dang,” which are at over 3 million and 5 million streams respectively, suggesting that the fanbase isn’t as enthusiastic.
General commentary across the web shows that fans are still unused to Rainbow Kitten Surprise’s new sound that has been developed over the past two album releases. While RKS have been around since 2013, their sound has started to expand away from their folk background.
Title track “bones” is about a relationship doomed from the start. Singer Ela Melo knows that she isn’t in the mental state for a relationship but tries to seek one out for relief regardless. She compares it to smoking after “college got hard again…I’m in some shit” and suggests that this was essentially just her sleeping around and “chasing bodies” again.
The best song of “bones” is undoubtably “Dang,” which was also released as a single on July 18. With its fast-paced guitar and drums, and the awkward pause before Melo sings “dang,” the track sounds familiar to old fans while simultaneously attracting new ones. In this track, the lyricism of the old Rainbow Kitten Surprise seems to reappear, with lyrics such as “Face it, we’re the problem and the riddle of it all” and “ I can’t help you let it be, pedal to the pedigree.”
Melo admits blame for how the relationship is going but also suggests that her partner has issues that might just be familial. The track is also about queer joy and love, and the band created the Rainbow Kitten Surprise Fund to donate $1 from every ticket sold to LGBTQ+ mental health access, food assistance, and rights.
Overall, the album was mediocre compared to other Rainbow Kitten Surprise works, but it showed the band maturing as a whole, especially after parting from bassist Charlie Holt in 2024. Hopefully, the band will take more advice from their listeners in the future.