Kenna: New Sacred Cow : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Ethiopian Virginia transplant makes the best synth pop you'll hear all year ethiopia-born, virginia-raised and Neptunes-befriended, Kenna Zemedkun is an unlikely candidate to be a New Wave synth-pop revivalist. But his debut, New Sacred Cow, not only pays homage to mid-1980s England, it improves upon it, masking bittersweet songs of alienation and regret with hook-juicy ear candy that's utterly modern. Produced by the Neptunes' Chad Hugo, Cow sounds like some crunked-up version of Depeche Mode, teetering between grimacing industrial dance numbers -- the ecstatic "Freetime" and the slithery "Vexed and Glorious" -- and the occasional torch song ("Yeneh Ababa"). "Love/Hate Sensation" captures the essence of frustration: impatient percussion, muscular synths, yearning vocals that, despite their best efforts, drown in the mix, a casualty of circumstance.

JON CARAMANICA
(RS 928, August 7, 2003)