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In Rotation: Kids These Days’ ‘Hard Times’

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A series in Sunday Calendar about what Times writers & contributors are listening to right now...

The youth today, they grow up so fast and so cynical. On this self-released, five-track EP, Kids These Days are bummed about love, stressed about the economy and suffering from a Midwest case of seasonal depression. The days just “drag on” for this college-aged seven-piece from Chicago, or, to be more precise, “Haterville, Illinois,” as the act declares on the title track.

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Yet this glimpse into what Kids These Days can do offers plenty of cause for optimism. At its core, the band falls somewhere between a jazz outfit and a blues combo, but the emphasis on rapping and nightclub vamping keeps the group’s intentions a mystery, and the songs surprisingly fluid.

“Walking Down the Line” is a femme-fatale scorcher from singer Macie Stewart, “My Days” is laid-back, acoustic wistfulness and “Darling” is a mix of I-love-you/I-don’t-love-you posturing from singer Liam Cunningham and rapper Vic Mensa, complete with a reference to the Chicago Bulls’ Derrick Rose. The melancholic title track, however, with its bluesy guitar licks, police-siren horns and give-and-take trio of vocalists, shows that the kids may have already matured beyond their name.

Kids These Days
“Hard Times”
Self-released

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— Todd Martens

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