Listening and video release party set for October 24 at Capitol Theatre in Arlington    

We recently had the glorious opportunity to check out the new electronic-pop album “Bottle Grin” from Kit Orion. The musical genius behind Kit Orion, is Worcester native and Cambridge based songwriter, producer and DJ Caitlyn O’Brien . You can listen to “Bottle Grin” Here

Our music loving heart was instantly filled with great joy , upon our first listen of Kit Orion’s euphoric new electronic-pop album Bottle Grin.

Kit Orion’s debut album opens a portal to perseverance and self-confidence, as the Worcester native grapples with bouts of self-doubt, a fixation on perfection, and personal trauma that was impacting her mental health. The result of this inner and outer journey plays out in vivid color across glossy beats and kaleidoscopic electro-pop.

“Bottle Grin” from Kit Orion unfolds like a page turning best selling novel with beautiful mind bending melodies, we were absolutely enthralled .

“This album feels like a series of sonic journal entries to me,” O’Brien says. “A lot of the lyrics in this album are a response to complicated grief. During the time I was writing these songs, I experienced abundant loss. I lost multiple pillars in my life, one after another over a short time. I was not able to have the space to grieve each person before another one was gone, so writing these songs was an acknowledgment of my people, their existence and their absence as a form of catharsis.” 

What we love most about “Bottle Grin” is the melodic and cinematic flow of the music .O’brein’s voice is a stunning and powerful instrument that delightfully shines and soars through out the 13 well crafted tracks on “Bottle Grin”

To peek inside Bottle Grin, past the shiny beats and glossy exterior of kaleidoscopic electro-pop, and past an emotional curtain that O’Brien may have once guarded with her life, is to not only understand the Worcester native’s creative headspace over the past two years, but to relate to it on a personal leve

From the kinetic strobe light mood of lead single “Like Honey” to the theatrical indie-pop confessions of the album closing title track, O’Brien weaves coming-of-age tales with delicate precision and a dream-like wonder. Select interludes, spliced-up samples from her personal past, pulled from home videos, take us back to her childhood, allowing a glimpse of the innocence and confidence she, like most of us, have lost along the way through adulthood. 

‘Get Grounded’ was written as a letter to myself, as I was experiencing depression, so it was difficult to write,” O’Brien reveals. “But sitting with my younger self, and looking back to give her some hope, helped me to remember to be kind to my current self, because my younger self is still there and that joy can be found even in difficult times.” Last year, O’Brien submitted ”Get Grounded” to Waveforms: A Multimedia Art Event at The Museum of Science in Boston, where she redesigned the song into spatial audio with the MIT Spatial Audio Lab. The day after Bottle Grin’s release, on October 25, O’Brien will return to Waveforms, taking part in the MIT Spatial Sound Lab Futures of Listening multimedia art occurrence at Midway Artist Studios in Fort Point.

“Each one of these songs was written as a response to a prompt, which also acted as a vessel for meditating on personal grief and trauma in real time,” O’Brien says. “I chose each one of these songs for the record because it felt like an accurate patchwork quilt of vibes for what was going on for me at the time that I was writing these songs.” Beyond her own songwriting, and providing vocals, synths, keys, samples, and drum programming, Bottle Grin was ultimately a collaborative affair. O’Brien wrote and produced the tracks, with recording, co-production, and additional engineering by Evan Murphy at Ombic Sound in Worcester, Massachusetts, and Big Nice Studio in Lincoln, Rhode Island. Mixing and mastering was done by Bradford Krieger at Big Nice Studio.

More traditional live performances are also on the calendar, as Kit Orion plays Cambridge’s Lizard Lounge after the album drop: for the Bottle Grin afterparty on November 7 with Justice Cow and Baker Thomas Band. 

Performing with Justice Cow is especially poignant, as it’s the project of Jessica Kion, who not only provided bass guitar on Bottle Grin and directed and edited the “Like Honey” music video, but led a songwriting club during the pandemic that helped plant the seeds for the tracks that appear on the record. Kion now performs in the Kit Orion live band, with Dutch Tulips’ Matt Freake on synths, drums, and percussion.

In addition to Kion, the album features a wealth of contributions: Chris Barrett on trumpet; Kyle Harris on drums; Ben Levin on electric guitar; Laurence Scudder on viola; and Samuel Taber on piano and Rhodes and Hammond organs. Additional vocals and vocal samples are provided by the aforementioned Kion, Levin, and Murphy, plus a range of family members that reinforce the personal nature of the music contained within: James O’Brien, Mason O’Brien, Sue O’Brien and Richard O’Brien Jr.

We highly recommend finding your favorite music listening spot, and getting lost in the beauty of “Bottle Grin” from Kit Orion