Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist Kid Bloom (Lennon Kloser) has dropped a new single, “Sparkle.” Following up on his buzzing single “Walk With Me”, “Sparkle” is the latest tease of his new EP Shaky Knees, set for release in August.  

“Sparkle” emerged during a session with another artist at a friend’s studio right down the street from Kloser’s house. Inspired by the oddball, angular charm of classic rock legend Joe Walsh, Kloser came up with the song’s big bass line and sang falsetto vocals over the chorus. “But I don’t want to be the guy with long hair making ’70s music in 2023, so we took the song back to my house and kept messing with it,” he shares. 

Kloser re-sung the vocals and then adjusted their speed until he came up with something that “sounded like an alien. It changed the whole trajectory.” Like all the songs on the forthcoming EP, the end result is rooted in a vintage style but masterfully produced with both feet planted in the musical present. 

Shaky Knees will mark the follow up to Kid Bloom’s 2022 breakout album Highway. The LP netted him attention with music critics and fans alike, culminating in a tour supporting The Bad Suns and a subsequent headline tour of the U.S. playing to packed houses across the country with sold-out rooms in Seattle, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and others. Kid Bloom recently posted a cryptic phone number (1-888-SHKY-KNS) to his social media that has since sent his rabid super fans into a frenzy after they called the number and received a special easter egg.

Kid Bloom measures growth on a microscopic level, a rare deviation from most people, who like to quantify things on grander scales. Whether it’s songwriting prowess, his skills on any number of instruments, or a development in his interpersonal relationships and maturity as a person, Kid Bloom is focused on a little bit more each day, each hour, each minute, each second. 

On Shaky Knees, that change is chronicled not only in the sturdiness and assurance in his songwriting, but in the subject matter, which ranges from the surreal to the deeply personal. The EP finds Kid Bloom at the most serious, powerful version of himself, but true to his moniker, there’s a playful edge that makes the project an undeniably joyous affair.

Take first single “Walk With Me,” which was released earlier this year and will also be on the Shaky Knees EP.  It is that rare song that sounds both instantly familiar and unlike anything else. The immediacy of Kid Bloom’s infectious voice gives the song a propulsive energy, while the bouncy bassline and shimmering synths that push up against Bloom’s pensive lyrics create a dynamic tension that gets resolved by “Walk With Me’s” infectious, undeniable hook.  For Kid Bloom, this complexity was necessary for reflecting his growth as an artist. 

I wrote the last album in the midst of a breakup, and that was my entire world. In a way, that was a crutch. Shaky Knees is just me diving into the abyss of whatever it is I am, and I couldn’t be more proud.”

Shaky Knees finds the joy in that Sisyphean journey. Kloser most realistically reflects this journey in the rewarding feeling of getting better at music every day. “Something about this music feels necessary, which is so important to me because the relationship between me and my music can sometimes collapse.” On Shaky Knees, Lennon Kloser is the best musician and songwriter he’s ever been. Until tomorrow, that is.

Photo Courtesy: Diego Andrade