The Kid

The Kid is the sixth studio album by American electronic musician Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith. It was released on October 6, 2017 by Western Vinyl. It’s a concept album about the human life cycle and was described by the artist as “a journey from birth to death”, while Smith depicts the four stages of life in the tracks of The Kid.

The Kid received positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 82, based on 18 reviews, which indicates “universal acclaim”. The music on the album has been described by the critics as electronic, avant-garde, psychedelia and experimental. Sasha Geffen of Pitchfork described The Kid as the most accessible album of Smith to date and stated that the artist “extracts as much joy as possible from the sadness.” While rating the album 4 out of 5, AllMusic’s Paul Simpson stated that “The Kid builds on Ears’ seamless fusion of synthetic and organic sounds, combining the fluid tones of her preferred instrument, the Buchla Music Easel, with other synthesizers, such as the rare EMS Synthi 100.”

Christopher R. Weingarten praised the album declaring that the artist “paints an even lusher world using cosmic swoops, squelches and lots of her highly processed vocals. Sounds don’t align with the rhythms, and Smith’s voice is awash in alien echoes.” In a highly positive review, Kelsey J. Waite of The A.V. Club rated the album grade “A”, while writing that the album “reaches a career high as the synthesist and composer ponders her existence, tracing the life cycle through four distinct stages” and opined that it is “truly an album to experience beginning to end.”

The Kid reaches a career high as the synthesist and composer ponders Smith’s existence, tracing the life cycle through four distinct stages.