With his sophomore album “Make Sure They See My Face,” Kenna strives and succeeds in doing just that with the help of the infamous The Neptunes and their recognizable sound: funky rhythms and hard hitting beats. But, you can’t help but give Kenna some musical credit on his second helping.
Kenna's new album is like listening to Depeche Mode with a hip-hop twist most evident on songs like “Say Goodbye to Love” and “Sun Red Sky Blue.” With its synthesized, electronica feel blended with hard driven bass lines that should give all new wave lovers something new to smile about while dancing the night away in a dark room filled with a spectrum of colorful lights while enjoying the sense of freedom that Kenna‘s voice gives you.
With its opening song “Daylight,” you can hear the U2 influence that glows and pulsates through your speakers and gives you that sense of feeling that everything is going to be ok as he sings songs of hope with pounding, anthem-like music that should be sung in a stadium directed to the world. While not making you dance into the star filled sky, Kenna slows it down a bit with songs like “Static“ and “Be Still” that gives you the chance to hear his soulful voice over a more slow tempo, but still futuristic sound that still gives you that warm feeling as his words express his much more tender side of himself, and also, allows you the chance to delve further into his mind.
This mixture of sounds and tempos constructs the perfect way for Kenna to open himself and show his talent into the ever changing music world, and shows music lovers that there are still real artists who are willing to put more time and effort into making more creative music that everyone will love.
Make Sure They See My Face overall, is what you get when you put the songs of U2’s album The Joshua Tree, and give it to the creative likes of the Neptunes, similar to the way DJ Danger Mouse took his creative taste to the songs of the Beatle’s White Album to construct an even more impressive album that audiences can’t help but take notice and give both musical and creative credit to and Kenna does his job in making sure that people see his face on his follow up album that will give you a reason to dance into the new year of 2008, with high hopes that will make you forget about all the bad things that has happened to you in the past year and look for a better light for the time to come.
