Outro

3 years since the release of 10 000, Kahn is no longer the same songwriter. She's dropped the moniker and with it any sense of impersonation; what's left is Emilie as herself, a keen writer determined to bend pop to her will. Outro, her latest effort, produced in collaboration with Warren C. Spicer of Plants and Animals, shows a craftsman come into her own. The songs have become something else, something older. Outro is a remorseful exit from youth, a pained look back as Kahn pores over every misplaced feeling and bad call. Teeming with adulthoods melancholy, Kahn offers indie pop crafted with a miniaturist hand toward intimacy while still reaching for the grandiosity of the genres icons. This is a record that stings as much as it soothes, and never misses a chance to swing for the fences as she glances around one last time before heading off to some future island.