Kuwaisiana Lets Loose on "Chapter 2"
Photo by Esther Clowney
The Kuwaiti-American alternative rock band have followed their debut with a political yet playful EP.
Kuwaisiana is more than the sum of its cross-cultural parts. The band’s genre mixtures are its most ear-catching quality, but at the core of the band are songs that snapshot how Kuwait-born, New Orleans-based singer +Aziz reacts to an evermore visibly unjust world. On Chapter 2: Al-Baab Al-Thani, following 2018's Chapter 1: Al-Baab Al-Awwal, +Aziz's social commentary steps to the forefront, and finds itself more carefree and unfiltered than ever.
With lines like "Sluggin’ through another year to the bottom of the bowl with a racist douche" from the track "Orange Klan", Chapter 2 trusts its audience to ride +Aziz's tongue-in-cheek energy wherever it takes them. Listeners are called to pay attention to their political surroundings but not let the world's evils wear them into a cynical stupor. The presentation of this ethos in Chapter 2 can be jarring at times, but it’s hard not to find it likable.
After the grandiose full-length Chapter 1, it made sense for Kuwaisiana to settle into more instantaneous territory on their more compact Chapter 2 EP. Where Chapter 1 spaced out its horn and accordion-coated peaks with minutes of quiet guitar buildup, each track on Chapter 2 could have you dancing before the 20 second mark and more or less rides that energy to the end. Fortunately, the drop in grandiosity doesn't translate to a drop in adventurousness as the instrumentals are just as lavish, and the structures of these songs are delightfully winding. Even the more straightforward tunes don't shy from unpredictability, like the opener "Guwwa", which is bittersweet ska-adjacent rock by day and soft Middle Eastern fusion by night.
Chapter 2 doesn't bring Kuwaisiana to new heights so much as it neatly captures what's been making them worth keeping your eye on. +Aziz's ambition is infectious, and every genre weaved into the EP's fabric is handled with due care. Despite some bumps in its messaging, Chapter 2 is assurance that Kuwaisiana haven't lost their integrity. This EP gives reason to be on the lookout for the next time when Kuwaisiana refine their abilities for a project of larger scope.
