Premiere: Devin Kennedy is no ‘Waste of Time’
The pop tunesmith’s mental state wears thin over a former relationship.
Some relationships have a sell-by date. Romantic or platonic, they can be suffocating and cut off circulation, breeding immense toxicity coursing through the veins. It takes great maturity and courage then to know it’s time to smash the shackles, relinquish the torment and move on. “I’m tired of playing your games,” pop newcomer Devin Kennedy provokes with his deeply rhythmic new single “Waste of Time,” embroidered with a clock’s dooming tick and alarmingly dirty synths. “You’re a waste of time” reads the jagged hook, scathing and mighty. Kennedy has few qualms about letting go; it’s cathartic and necessary if he ever wants to reclaim his sanity.
The genre-bender of hearty R&B and alternative pop strains envisions a future without a relationship (or any friendship for that matter) that drains him of any self-identifying marks. “I’ve been down, so dark and dim / Your kisses held me hostage / I’ve been breaking free from the chains / I’ve been down and out, falling deeper in your blue eyes,” he sings, amusing the past in some cheeky flashback sequence before sinking those feelings to the bottom of an opaque, purple-hued sea, waves clashing against his vocal.
A student of Berklee College of Music, Kennedy’s heritage runs deep in his bones. His early learnings of drums, bass, guitar and piano is omnipresent on “Waste of Time,” which playfully explores tribal patterns in modern filters, and his voice is sensual but authoritative. “I wrote [this song] about a relationship that became harder and harder to maintain. We’ve all been there at some point. People grow; people change. And sometimes, when it’s all said and done, it’s best that you move on without each other,” he tells B-Sides & Badlands about the song, his first release since January’s Love Language EP drop. He turns to the work of The Weeknd and Charlie Puth, flexing a mellow and provocative tone, bending around his syllables like a serpent ⎯⎯ but there is something irrefutably unique imprinted on the melody.
He adds, “It has a dark, vocally percussive production approach that makes you want to move, but doesn’t take away from the songs deep meaning.”
“Waste of Time” is out everywhere tomorrow (April 13).
Listen below:
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