On her brand new album “Tales Of A Hundred Thoughts”, Irina Kühn alias Plain Folly takes us into her very own Neverland. Her melancholic, dramatic, cascading indie pop quickly makes one thing clear, however: this is not the cheerful Disney version full of fairy dust. Neverland may not yet have burned down, but it’s a whole lot more disillusioned. Time is ticking like the clock in the crocodile, ticking for all of us, our lives passing us by as we escape to imaginary castles made of sand.
In dramatically undulating, powerfully cinematic songs, “Tales Of A Hundred Thoughts” tells of transience, disillusion and of the fading of magic. Plain Folly is her baby, hers alone. Her music is her catharsis, the songs written and arranged by herself, recorded with producer Tom Schenk. Piano, guitar, synths and Moritz Müller’s accentuating drums draw a meaningful, foreboding, soaring coordinate system in which Tori Amos, Phoebe Bridgers, Chvrches and Florence + the Machine can be cited as reference points. However, Plain Folly is moving on her own straight curve – not least because of her full, versatile voice. “
“Tales Of A Hundred Thoughts” confronts serious topics with disarming honesty and intimate openness, wrapping existential questions in achingly beautiful, somberly shimmering, wholesome indie gems.
“But there must be something more”: With BREAKING CLOCKS Plain Folly succeeds in creating a furious, passionate indie anthem against self-doubt and resignation.
Wavy synths, lush Eighties drums by Moritz Müller (Heavytones) and shimmering energy accentuate the toxic trip into Plain Folly’s inner ego, placing the song somewhere between Chvrches, Paramore and Mutemath.
APART is a gripping song about the walls around us. About the trenches we’ve drawn, intentionally or unknowingly, and now can’t seem to bridge anymore. A song like a mantra.
A blazing, desiring, decidedly feminine love song about two people who can’t let go of each other. Although they really should. Plain Folly’s very personal Murder Ballad between Ravel and Americana.
A darkly shimmering story about devotion in the most negative sense: as self-devaluation, self-abandonment, self-destruction, triggered by an unfulfilled toxic love.
Plain Folly is many things. Unadjusted, thoughtful, sometimes dreamy, sometimes eruptive. But above all: DIY as fuck exclusively. Irina Kühn aka Plain Folly writes her own songs, plays almost all instruments herself, even partly produces her own music. Her melancholic pulsating indie prism creates its very own niche between Fiona Apple, Phoebe Bridgers and Florence + the Machine, carried by her versatile voice and her artful piano craft. Thus, her music becomes strikingly deep, a surging ocean of associations and emotions, sometimes beautiful and sometimes threatening. There is light, but not without shadow. There is pain, but not without hope. Sometimes shape-shifting as feather-light, sometimes as driving indie pop with a focus on her powerful voice and her great talent on the black and white keys, sometimes as an eruptive rock catharsis, and sometimes as an urban trip-hop fairy-tale. Her new album sets self-doubt and transience to music, boldly facing the storms of life alone despite all their heaviness – a wholesome, musically beguiling act of self-empowerment. Plain Folly: against all odds forevermore. And a fabulously exciting new indie discovery.