For blasting in the car or crying in the bedroom
Kississippi, the music project of Zoe Reynolds, explores a range of unfiltered mood and emotion on her second album, Mood Ring. Channeling influences ranging from ’80s synth, indie rock and a tinge of emo pop, Kississippi invites listeners on a 10-track venture into the depths of love, heartbreak, nostalgia and the duality between adolescence and adulthood—songs straight out of an MTV coming-of-age feature—fittingly wrapped up in the album cover of a chewed-up gum wad. Something one would probably find stuck under your desk in high school math class—paper airplanes and teenage rebellion energy.
Mood Ring begins with “We’re So In Tune,” a youthful ’80s-synth pop banger packed with glistening guitar chords, shuffling synths and sparkling percussion. Kississippi channels the excitement of meeting someone new : “We’re so in tune, can you hear it too?” The song’s youthful energy is transferred over to “Moonover.” Kississippi takes a nostalgia trip—“If this is the future, let’s go back in time”—as the beat shuffles through a bridge of hi-hats that sound like the ticking away of a clock or perhaps a bunch of cans of soda pop being cracked open in a distant summer of the past. Either way, it’s nice.
“Dreams with You” is a dream-pop anthem of echoing guitar chords that float through the walls of the bedroom and into the clouds above. Lyrics about missing someone so badly that you long to fall asleep just to dream about them are painfully relatable. The song hits a screeching stop as people are pulled out of the bliss of slumber and awakened to reality. “Around Your Room” carries the mood of night-cruising around the city. “Girls just wanna have fun… carefree, windows down like we’re sixteen.” Hypnotic synths flutter through the track as Kississippi revisits the childlike feeling of wonder: “Feeling just like a child, spellbound by reverie.”
“Heaven” is a wave of gentle guitar strums, ethereal synths and an earworm of a chorus as Kississippi hits a high-note vocal delivery that delightfully captures the euphoria of being with someone special—“I just want to let you in, cause you know I aim to please you.” Lyrics explore the almost nihilistic dependency on another person’s affection to patch one’s own existential dread (“You say it’s like heaven and it makes me a believer”). It’s bliss whenever the chorus comes back around. The beat carries itself with a sharp and hitting, yet pillowy and soft, weight as each kick drum pops and fizzes against a bubbly wall of synths. It’s sweet and sugary, a smooth contrast to the jarring electric guitar that unapologetically echoes through the track’s closing — a similar contrast between the fluttery and ecstatic, yet staggering and raw, emotional intricacies that come with having these types of feelings for someone.
The moods shift through “Twin Flame” and “Wish I Could Tell You,” packed with lethargic basslines and classic pop undertones. “Play Til You Win” is a slow, translucent dance ballad that explores the not-so-innocence of youth, with lyrics such as “I’m a sad little kid with a heart full of sin.”
“Big Dipper” slows things down even further with a gravelly beat, light percussion and Kississippi’s soft vocals as she acknowledges the lack of control we have: “We don’t plan these things, they happen with time.” Her pain rings on a cosmic scale—“I’m a meteor shower glowing blue… big dipper, long goodbye.” The album closes with “Hellfire,” a melancholy reflection of moods as Kississippi asks, “Do you think I deserved it? Do you think I deserve you?”
Mood Ring explores the heavy baggage of emotions that come in the package deal of youth: love, heartbreak and growing pains. Mixed with lush production, delicate vocals and touching lyrics, Kississippi’s album is more than a mood; it’s a whole ring of them.
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