Critic's evaluation
It is difficult for an artist, be he representative of any musical genre, to deal with his emotions, his impulses, and his inner self. Mainly, it is difficult to face the duality of the mind, the id, the ego and the superego. This is the arduous task that K.Flay proposes to face in Inside Voices / Outside Voices, his fourth and most recent studio album.
The guitar riff mixes opacity with stridency. At the same time, the instrument, under the command of Tommy English, sounds slightly acoustic and with a properly indie swing. In the background, Noah Breakfast's drum beat works like a hand clapping, providing the tempo and timing of the song in construction. Then a high-pitched, sour voice comes on the scene, bringing a more citrusy spice to the melody. It's K. Flay introducing a lyricism that highlights the duels between desires and conscience while the rhythmic base is based on a low, harsh and punctual guitar riff in a way that recalls traces of the darkness present in the sound of The Pretty Reckless. On the other hand, it is interesting to note how the song transitions easily and freely between density and lightness. Four Letter Words is a song that clearly exposes the singer's desire to vent thoughts and feelings long dammed and accumulated in her mouth that revolve around relationships, of moments in which she felt snobbish, ignored and devalued. "Fuck you, you didn't deserve me!", finally explodes the lyric self in his taking courage on the path of his self-confidence and self-worth.
An atmosphere that borders on a mix of indie and melancholy, as Coldplay brilliantly does, is evidenced. An electronic sound then rises with opposing touches of sweetness, acidity, and stridency. Tim Randolph's drums come in with accelerated hits on the snare drum to get the flow of a melody deeply immersed in the indie pop theme from the sound of the low, linear, and slightly strident bass. Flirting with Snow Patrol's sound aesthetic, Good Girl possesses a strikingly thematic lyricism, as it portrays the inner conflict of the lyrical self in behaving according to what society expects when, in truth, her own identity is being omitted. "but I'm getting tired of being nice" is the venting that comes at the moment when the character realizes what his essence actually is.
A shrill sound comes like an echoing scream. Spencer Stewart's guitar comes right after with a soft riff and nauseating aesthetics. In contrast to the rhythmic tempo stipulated by the instrument, K. Flay comes up with lyrical verses of accelerated cadence that evolve to an interpretation that imputes touches of an unreasonable and unconscious seduction. Here, the indie melody structured also from the linear and precise groove drums exercised by Travis Barker refers to the sound design painted on the picture of Father of All Motherfuckers, Green Day's most recent album. Such an observation might be a good explanation for the fact that Dating My Dad possesses a contagious rhythmic softness in such a way as to make it take over as the single from Inside Voices / Outside Voices. Dating My Dad is a song that exposes the need for protection, but at the same time the evidence of the Freudian concept of the Oedipus complex. On the other hand, the narrated plot evidences that certain behaviors and attitudes are exercised unconsciously, but in such a way as to replicate events from the past experienced by the parents. It is a song that speaks, necessarily, about the heredity of thoughts and behaviors.
The voice comes in echo with noises. JT Daly's drums accompany it with a short, spaced-out groove. A shrill sound creeps up the ear hairs as if in a fright. This is how the first verse has its awakening. Followed by an undulating guitar riff, dirty and rough drawn by Tom Morello, K.Flay goes on introducing a cadenced lyricism in rap aesthetics that imprints a sense of revolt to the sound atmosphere. "I wanna rage against the fucking machine", says the singer in a way to mention the band that launched the present guitarist into showbusiness stardom. Not coincidentally, under a rap rock guise TGIF brings another perspective on the optics of identity assumption, a theme already addressed in Good Girl. Here, however, there is more rebellion and a sense of anger at having to pretend to have another personality that is embraced by an intoxicating hypnotic sonic chaos.
"Your mind is created by your name", says a radio voice in a way that sounds like hypnotic audio. The dramatic bass notes of the keyboard end up inserting a distinctive density into the shaping melody. Again under the rap aesthetic, My Name Isn't Katherine is another song from Inside Voices / Outside Voices dealing with the essence, the identity of people while bringing up the emotional segment of insecurity. With the presence of sub-bass giving weight and density to the melody, My Name Isn't Katherine is, in short, a song about the duality between the imposing force of exposing one's true identity and the insecurity about the judgments that this attitude can foster.
Grave, distorted, dirty. Dense. The guitar sound early on suggests a dramatic ambience that flirts with anger and rebellion. Suddenly, a sound that sounds like a desperate scream suddenly haunts the atmosphere that gives way to a melody with a soft, gentle base and touches of torpor that are rooted in the indie aesthetic. The Muck is a song that, despite its lyrical cadence in such a way as to make it become, alongside Dating My Dad, a single from Inside Voices / Outside Voices, possesses a lyricism with a dense and suffocating theme. After all, it represents fears, insecurities and disappointments in society in a way that exudes the same criticism made by Charles Chaplin in his iconic feature film Modern Times.
Like Good Girl, this song, from the very beginning, shows great similarity to the melodic clothing mostly adopted in Snow Patrol's songs. Under an indie ground, Nothing Can Kill Us brings a softness with a curiously romantic aroma that provides an intoxicating sweetness. The present song is a product that arguably exudes a sense of self-confidence and unbreakable energy. On the other hand, Nothing Can Kill Us is indeed a song about romance, about the youthful feeling of the first crushes that seem to be the unique, best and most intense experiences that will be lived in a lifetime.
I'm Affraid Of The Internet is one of the stickiest sounding songs on the entirety of Inside Voices / Outside Voices. Delivered through the skills of Jason Suwito, it is soft and intensely melodic in a way that exudes a numbing indie aroma. However, as is being common on the album, the present track is loaded with strong criticism, which here revels in the consequences that internet addiction can cause in people. The sense of being unshakable, the idea of infinite protection. The premeditated falsehood, the unscrupulous judgments. Dramatic, intense, even haunting. "This big machine is too bad to break," marvels the lyric self, and sums up the whole affliction of I'm Affraid Of The Internet.
There is a melancholic softness exuded by the guitar sound. However, there is also a curious torpor of hope that is emanated by the minimalist melodic velvet. Maybe There's A Way is a song that, flirting with an R&B outfit, brings a more emotionally fragile and sensitive K.Flay that exhorts regrets of deeds not done. It is only through the lyricism that a density of dark, depressing dust is blown with fervent force. A depression of a degree that makes it impossible to observe alternatives to remedy the problems. However, the dawning sun brings encouragement and the clarity of hope, allowing the observation that yes, there are new opportunities to change what has been done and improve future attitudes. This is the emotional maturity of the lyricist in Maybe There's A Way.
A mesmerizing, linear, and stunning melody forms from Tom Peyton's drums and Ryan Spraker's guitar. A melody with repeating quirks of strangeness and an off-beat sound, Weirdo brings a lyrical interpretation that borders on self-imposed debauchery as self-defense. It is a song that highlights not only the bullying itself, but its origin. The fact of not following the same precepts, not wearing the same clothes, not having the same accent, not having the same interests, and not sharing the same origin are some of the reasons that stimulate the prejudice and the ridicule so common in schools around the world. What is interesting is the conclusive reasoning that the lyricist reaches when he witnesses such prejudice: "so you think that I'm a freak show and you're afraid of what it means, 'cause if everybody's different, maybe you're a freak like me". In other words, the jokes are a defense by others to feel superior, when, in fact, they feel strange in the same way that they judge their fellow human beings.
It is like being in a dream, and in the background the sound of the alarm clock beeping is heard to bring the person back to consciousness. Guided by the piano with notes flirting with the blues and the snapping of fingers that draw the rhythmic cadence, the melody exudes a certain tone of cheerfulness. Caramel And Symphonies is a dramatic song in a way that resembles the emotional appeal that may be present in Imagine Dragons' tracks. It is true that this track has a certain intrinsic joy in the melodic turns of Mike Byrne's groovy drumming, and it is this that delights the listener with a truly romantic lyricism in K. Flay's way of expressing himself.
Subbass and vocal. These are the ingredients that form the first sonar of the song. Promoting an intoxicating melodic experience that is governed by the overlapping clean and edited vocals, Good To Drive is the song that narrates the awareness, the legitimate encounter with the sense of self-worth. At the same time, this is a song in which the character realizes that he needs help to overcome the emotional steps he has created for himself.
Everyone has desires that intoxicate and mask the sense of awareness. And everyone also has lapses of lucidity that regain that awareness once lost in reveries of widely appealing impulses. This duality of the mind is what Inside Voices / Outside Voices is about.
As an album of a notably autobiographical lyrical character, all of its 12 songs possess a sense of overflowing viscerality that imputes an intense and penetrating dramaticity. Not coincidentally, the lyrical themes themselves carry great weight and reflection.
At 36, the born Kristine Meredith Flaherty promotes reveries about identity, about acceptance, about social characteristics and behavior, but most importantly, about the conflicts of the mind. Self-knowledge is a difficult thing to fully achieve, and whenever within that process, emotional ups and downs are inevitable.
And K. Flay handles this with mastery and maturity. Tracks like Good Girl, Dating My Dad, TGIF, My Name Isn't Katherine, Maybe There's A Way, Weirdo and even I'm Afraid Of The Internet illustrate this well. The tracks mirror a person who is emotionally fragile and insecure, but with an unbridled thirst to prove herself to the world.
To achieve this, Inside Voices / Outside Voices walks through diverse musical genres such as rap, indie, rap rock, R&B, and pop in order to promote a menu of melancholic, nostalgic, joyful, and, above all, suffering and numbing feelings.
Not by chance, to achieve this goal K.Flay needed a competent and sensitive technical team that included names like English, Randolph, Daly, Suwito, English, Spraker, M-Phazes, Mitch Allan, and Matias Mora in the production. This amount of names promoted a versatile range of dressings, interpretations, and textures that synthesized each of the proposed emotions. On the other hand, the mix was in charge of only one name: Michael Freeman. He managed to make sure that all instruments, acoustic or not, were heard in order to create the ambiences desired by the producers, thus making each song a unique product.
Released on 02/04/2022 via BMG, Inside Voices / Outside Voices is a study of the human psyche in a way that evaluates internal and external stimuli and how they shape an individual's emotions. Melancholic and numbing, the sense of trial is undeniably present in this quest that K.Flay has embarked on to find out more about who she really is.
