Inside The Credits 056: Ian Kirkpatrick

Ian Kirkpatrick Has Produced The Best Song On A Big Album Six Times

Sometimes numbers align, and since this is ITC 56, it’s pretty cool that 6 is such an important number for this piece. As the subheading indicates, I made a pretty cool six song discovery. Ian Kirkpatrick, a pop music wizard I’ve come to find out, achieved a whopping feat of producing the best song on an impactful six albums—at least to my ears. 

The impetus for this discovery is, to me, the most interesting part. I’ve been running the new Jessie Reyez album PAID IN MEMORIES a lot since it dropped. It’s firstly, excellent, but more importantly accomplishes something I’ve never really heard on another album. In a lot of ways it’s bloated and not cohesive, which to almost anyone else would result in a net negative listening experience. Yet, Reyez has somehow made an assortment of songs that are all so compelling individually that together they strangely still work as a unit. I think it comes down to the elite level of songwriting and her ability to have more of a range of genres that feel organic to her than most artists. Also, remarkably, I think it’s her best body of work to date.

To add to this anomaly of an album, its best song actually arrives on the deluxe section (an absolute rarity in my experience). “FREE” is a plea for healing chronicled by open 70s-coded guitars that feel Mk.gee-esque but with a more open field festival vibe. The song is pure alchemy in the way it takes a deeply relatable expression of frustration, and through its instrumental, urges you to fight through it alongside Reyez. Ian Kirkpatrick is the sole credited producer.

Naturally, I dove into the credits to see what else he produced. I landed first on the last critically lauded Sabrina Carpenter album Short N’ Sweet. Kirkpatrick produced a few tracks, but most importantly composed the only song I actually like, “Bed Chem.” There’s a lot of pop artist albums I only like a few songs, or in this case a single song, from. Modern pop can feel a bit surface level sonically a lot of the time but Kirkpatrick is finding moments to cut through the middling noise. “Bed Chem,” similar to “FREE,” has an intoxicating guitar. But this time it reminds me way more of yacht rock classics colliding with 80s r&b. Sabrina Carpenter is known now for cheeky suggestive lyrics, but the pocket Kirkpatrick provides here propels her into her most smirk-inducing lines of her whole project.

Next, I made my way to the Troye Sivan single “Got Me Started,” which also has an accompanying viral music video featuring some immaculately strange choreo. I listened to the rest of the album it featured on upon release, and like with Carpenter, didn’t like a single other song. The way Kirkpatrick helped Sivan stand out here was with his synthesizer proficiency. Listening to the piercing synth on “Got Me Started” feels like eating a really great sandwich from a local spot. It’s super satisfying in the moment, but more impactful because you wanna keep going back to get a taste. 

Olivia Rodrigo’s “get him back!” came next which is not only the best song on her second album, but my personal favorite in her catalog. Kirkpatrick’s main role is on synthesizer for this track as well, which is an element you may miss if you don’t listen closely. The instrumental has a guitar as its core sound in the first verse, which switches to a synth in the second verse mimicking a similar pattern. It slyly keeps your ear alive and helps lift the clever wordplay within Rodrigo’s angst.

To keep on this same pattern, my favorite song on Dua Lipa’s best album Future Nostalgia, “Pretty Please,” is also my favorite song she’s ever released. The instrumental is a masterclass in achieving a modern disco pop pulse. I’d say there’s no song that sounds more like swerving around the roads in the hills in LA at night. I’ve never been to a party up there, but I bet it would be sick to play this on the way. Kirkpatrick strikes again.

Last, but far from least, Kirkpatrick produced Dua Lipa’s first ever hit that jump started her career “New Rules.” What else is there to say about that song other than Kirkpatrick helped her invent her sound. The rhythm was addictive, the synths and keys are still transcendent. Any producer should dream of making 6 songs of this magnitude.

Playlists- Inside The Credits: 056 Ian Kirkpatrick

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