Keni Titus Bares Her Soul and Sheds Her Skin in ‘AngelPink’
Continuing her ascent as an artist to watch, alt-pop treasure Keni Titus embodies the softness and strength that define the feminine experience with unapologetic authenticity on AngelPink. Her debut LP transforms diary-like introspection into a gentle exploration of self-discovery and loss as she returns home to herself. Spanning 10 tracks at just 30 minutes, AngelPink says everything it needs to without overindulging, transpiring into a coming-of-age testament within its acoustic instrumentation, delicate yet commanding vocals and poetic lyricism.
Titus unpacks the quiet melancholy of endings while learning to hold herself instead once something has fallen through her fingers. That very sense of emotional evolution spills into the record’s first moments on “Hound Dog,” as blaring horns give way to stripped-back reflection, while “Hands to Myself” explores the restless pull of longing and the humbling realization that what you have may already be enough.
AngelPink feels like clean hair, fresh linen and flipping through glitter gel pen ink-filled diary pages while reminiscing on the vulnerability, honesty and trials and tribulations that come with growing into womanhood. “In Love Again” confronts the bittersweet reality of grieving someone you chose to release and the accompanying ache of witnessing them find happiness without you. “So does she read your mind? Does she take it off? Does she sleep on my side of the bed? / Is it such a rush every time you touch? Are you so in love again?”
Acoustic fingerpicking and the fragility of Keni’s enchanting vocals in “Man Like You” mirror her reckoning with gender double standards in relationships. With its slightly eerie production and lyrics written from her perspective of how men treat women in courtship, the track exposes the unfair freedom men can afford while women’s desires often go unnoticed. “‘Cause you’re a man, hit me baby anywhere you want to / Pressure from the palm of your hand / Touch me, pretty baby, while I tell you / Every part of you that I am.”
The record’s lyricism turns increasingly self-aware midway through as “Leave Me Out Cold” and “Baby” shed light on the ache that follows leaving someone you’re not quite ready to let go of and the uncomfortable readjustment to sleeping alone again. “I’m a Liar” follows a similar sentiment, with Keni singing of being avoidant in a relationship yet looking back fondly and still feeling bad for leaving.
Closing track “Pretty in Pink” encapsulates everything AngelPink stands for, with its wistful reflection painted in cherry-cola hues and sunlit memories of a past love and its lingering warmth. “There’s something about being half in love and half insane / I’m pretty in pink, I look so good when I sink.”
AngelPink serves as a graceful reminder that growing into yourself is hardly a tidy process. Feminine, nostalgic imagery unfurls in a humble depiction of girlhood in all its mess, vulnerability and transformation. Don’t miss Keni Titus live in New York City on February 24th or Los Angeles on February 17th! More information available on her Instagram @kenititus.
