Inside the material world of Katy Kirby’s Blue Raspberry

Oftentimes our minds go straight to the number of years – a landmark anniversary, vacations taken together or even a home. However, on Blue Raspberry, Katy Kirby is determined to take a more thorough approach, zoning in on the intricacies that make up a partner’s whole.

Sometimes it’s more superficial, like with the album’s overt obsession with diamonds; irrelevant of their authenticity as long as they shine like the real thing, as expressed eloquently on lead single, "Cubic Zirconia". Their synthetic quality feels constantly at odds with the natural world in which Kirby places them – rhinestones turn to salt crystals, or a “scenic waterfront” soon becomes polluted with “cold plastic water bottles held against the light”. However, it doesn’t make the moment any less valuable, and instead Kirby simply points out the meaning that can be found in the most mundane of scenes.

These images stretch out across the album like verses of an epic poem – the treasure Kirby collects as she traverses the foreign territory of her first queer relationship. “Once I realized they were queer love songs and celebrating artificiality, I wanted them to sound like they were bidding for a spot in the wedding reception canon," she says, explaining some of the album’s more romantic twists in production. Indeed, most tracks would feel at home in such a celebration, like the cynically sweet "Party of the Century", showcasing the artist’s skill in blending comedy with sincerity; “Happy anniversary, I’m happy as I’ll ever be / And I still want to make love in this club.”

Potently precise and exceedingly witty, Kirby’s lyrical prowess is written all over Blue Raspberry, showcasing its sheer range from the earnest theatrics of "Drop Dead" to the quiet craving on "Wait Listen". “There’s a tradition of yearning in country love songs”, she notes, “I like the male yearning songs better, usually.” Moreover, the album’s titular track, and the record’s true highlight, began as a songwriting exercise in embracing this style before Kirby realised that her feelings might not be as fictional as she once thought.

And although a pitched-down voice looms behind her as she sings, echoing that typically masculine tradition she first sought to embody, "Blue Raspberry" is nothing but achingly earnest. Further replete with lush harmonies set against a stripped-back arrangement, the track feels like a culmination of the record’s bubbling momentum. In one single line the object of her affection morphs from “sugar cane split-open” to “a jaw about to sing”. To Kirby, a person can truly be all of these things at once – an infinite number of objects, memories and things that deserve be honoured and treasured just the same.