On her 2016 Crush Me tour, K.Flay took around a blank book. It stayed at the merch stand, and she asked that anyone who desired wrote in it about a time that they felt crushed, that they crushed someone else, or “a time you finally let something stop crushing you.” Safe to say the book was intense, and lends great insight into what she values. K.Flay, Kristine Flaherty,  is a unique singer and songwriter, ‘K.Flay’ started as an MC side project, while she was in college at Stanford for psychology and sociology, to parody an overly misogynistic and shallow rap community. Once she was out of college she pursued the profession. She mixes fast paced rap influenced lyricism with other less centralized aesthetic influences to the effect of what can otherwise be described as dark indie rock. Alongside her signature genre, her voice is unique in its own right. It’s grainy, and smokey, and her melodies come across as though there is a little bit of television fuzz spilled into the cracks of her vocal chords. The style translates into a tender atmosphere, complimenting her imagery heavy lyrics. They swirl into a musical realm half surreal, and the other half too real. My personal taste tends away from her very earlier work. Single and Famous is a bit too silly, and her earlier EPs while still treasured don’t feel as refined as I’d like, despite their fantastic energy and certain blunt sass. I find the strongest stride in Life as a Dog. It’s an amazing album, with an atmosphere like that of an overcast day when you’ve already had too much to drink at only 2 in the afternoon. Can’t Sleep, a personal favorite off the album, has a nervous energy symbolic of the stress induced insomnia it details. It starts off with an incredibly quick verse that catches the ear and carries that energy into the poetry of the pre-chorus. It, along with the rest of the album is worth a listen, however for a more condensed experienced, Crush Me is quintessential. Crush Me contains only 4 songs, but each feels concentrated and inspired. You can listen to it in a matter of minutes so I’ll spare the gratuities. Dreamers is the third in the set, questioning the what ifs of a life, while marveling at the world. It starts with a bass drum built to shake houses, paired with some sparse instrumental help, to support the vocals. Though the introduction to the song she seems to be questioning her past choices, in an almost too calm existential crisis. As the song progresses however, a large horn drops into the pocket giving a great shift in energy, and the tone transfers from wistful, to forward looking. She goes on about the grandeur of the world, and how she wants to experience more of it still. The song feels caught between the what ifs and the why nots, and therein exists its beauty.

TL;DR I’d argue K.Flay’s voice fits her. Take a listen and think about death and get sad and stuff.

-A