Single Review: Jenny Kern – ‘Run’.

And there’s just such an intimate warmth. Jenny Kern’s voice is natural, and so naturally sugared, that it almost glides over our ears. Ok, yes, it’s pop. But it’s grown up and mournful, and slickly produced, with a silked 80’s honey-spun gloss.

There’s a comfort, an easy-feel glow. M83’s ‘Saturday = Youth’ and Dum Dum Girls’ lushed-up ‘Too True’, they both charmed us with cool retro shine. That’s all here but in soft touch proportions, like a blanket that keeps in the snug. Jenny Kern has a knack of knocking back the pop-snob and drawing us in without warning.

Run’ is a single that hides in itself, that comes across pain free and breezy. It washes, soaks, and soothes over smoothly, it doesn’t strain to command our attention. But it’s missed when it’s gone, we go back and re-listen, we pick up on the space where it placed us. For three minutes and 55 seconds we connected, even if we didn’t twig. And any music that puts in a claw without knowing has done the job music should do.

At the centre of all is her voice; a half spoken heartache with an un-fussed inflection, and a strength that’s too easy to miss. It’s vulnerable without show, gently measured and owned, it folds in with the ease and the felt. Those big toms might ring out, synths and pads swell their sounds, guitars might cut in with a washed chord or break, but none of those break up the focus. ‘Run’ gives us something that’s tender, addictive, like the tear jerkers re-watched in secret.