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Tennessee native Amythyst Kiah has cited Tori Amos, sci-fi movies and video games as style influences. More mystery was found in her early cover versions, where she tackled the likes of Radiohead, Son House and Planxty. There’s also been the matters of coming out as gay and her mother’s suicide to contend with. Now for Still + Bright she’s brought producer Butch Walker on board, famed for his work with Weezer, Avril Lavigne and Green Day. Walker is a noted fan of 1970s glam rock, but the deal pays off here, lending Kiah’s folk-soul songs an edge of slam and stomp, not unlike those of Brittany Howard.
Kiah earned a GRAMMY for her punchy anthem Black Myself, which in a saner world would be as ubiquitous as Tracy Chapman’s Fast Car. On this new material her iron-willed music is full of immortal longings, her strident voice radiating warmth and magick. At times she sounds like a sensual figure going on epic quests, with groove-steeped melodies big enough to span oceans.
Her blood is up from the start on Play God and Destroy the World, partly inspired by The Matrix and its virtual world. ‘We’re all going six feet underground’ Kiah cries, both outraged and jubilant, as the chorus bursts into flames. Space, which follows, is a rolling rootsy number with trickling banjo and mandolin, given an airy pleading hookline. There’s a touch of Celtic soul on Empire of Love which struts towards power pop with a churchy spin. Not for the last time during this collection do we find Kiah pledging allegiance to her own spirit. It happens again on I Will Not Go Down, a real righteous tub-thumper, a high-octane spell song.
Kiah’s next ritual comes via the wild abandon of Silk and Petals, as she dances away private griefs to a burning beat. Die Slowly Without Complaint is a slab of rumbling country-funk, all horny and grinding under its folkloric chants. Then there’s the tectonic gospel of Gods Under the Mountain, an uncanny and monstrous piece with scriptural imagery akin to Dylan or Bono. Dead Stars goes on a noirish country waltz, while Dark Matter vibrates with etheric energy.
Then, after nine cuts wherein Kiah sounds invincible, come three tracks where her old anxieties seem to surface. Let’s See Ourselves Out ponders if we primates are a mistake, just as Never Alone burns with cosmic confusion, its music turning overheated in response. Finally comes People’s Prayer, a strummed hymnal where Kiah’s fragility finds her hanging on by a thread, accepting her own mortality.
Overall, this album feels like the fallout from a season in hell, expressing Kiah’s hunger for wholeness, or even holiness. She knows how to dance without constraint and mostly sings with great courage. Despite the astral frequencies it often glides on, Still + Bright stays earthbound to express great divinity.
Still + Bright (25th October 2024) Rounder Records
Pre-Save: https://found.ee/AKStillandBright
