Katie Gavin -- What a Relief
Katie Gavin strikes out from her famous trio MUNA on her solo debut What Relief.
In October 2024, Katie Gavin of MUNA peeled back her power pop persona and tapped into her Lilith Fair sensibilities for her stellar solo debut album, What A Relief. The 12-track effort is a beautiful, genre-traversing exploration of desire, expectations, relationship dynamics, and observations of the human experience from one of the most talented songwriters of our time.
Gavin’s songwriting and voice sound equally at home in the 90s-tinged folk pop tracks like “Aftertaste” and “Casual Drug Use,” both of which employ her uncanny ability to create a perfect bridge, and in the more bluegrassy songs, like the generational trauma-inspired “Inconsolable” and the similarly themed mother-daughter song, “The Baton,” where rugged fiddle solos take center stage..
A fan favorite, “Sanitized” rings tinny in your ears from start to finish, reminiscent of Fiona Apple’s “Criminal.” It takes real skill to be gritty and still maintain a melodic pop sound, but Gavin does it with ease. She plays the most with her vocals on the midpoint, “Sketches,” which illustrates the duality of small and big lives and how similar they can appear to the naked eye.
The only duet on the album, “As Good As It Gets,” struck me the first time I heard it via a fan video taken at the Newport Folk Festival, where Katie performed it during MUNA’s set before the album was released. On the record, Mitski performs the second verse; a perfect choice for a song showcasing the realistic, disappointing sides of romantic love, a niche she’s specialized in over the years. It tells the story of an optimist accepting the reality of a relationship that isn’t living up to their expectations, but even then, they’re fooling themselves into believing they’re okay with the scraps.
As a fellow Pisces moon, I always resonate with Gavin’s reflective, deep interior lyrics, which are strongest on tracks like the soft but strong album opener, “I Want It All” (Want you to forgive me/I'm not sure for what) and the measured, introspective closer, “Today” (I built a kingdom all to myself/I wanted freedom, I didn’t want help). The album delivers a circular effect in answering as many questions as it asks, which appears to be a recurring theme for Gavin and perhaps an ethos for her approach to songwriting and life itself–the tug of war of logic and emotion will pull us in and out of ourselves time and time again, but the curiosity and constant learning it inspires is what makes living a worthy pursuit.
