We review the new album by Katelyn Tarver – Subject to Change – out this Friday, including the singles ‘Shit Happens’ and ‘All Our Friends Are Splitting Up.’ Pre-order the record here.
Los Angeles-via-Georgia singer/songwriter Katelyn Tarver will debut her album Subject to Change this Friday, that showcases her unique songwriting voice. On this album, Tarver emerges as a rare artist capable of capturing painful truths in impossibly lovely pop songs that strike every raw nerve. Subject to Change gracefully fuses pop, folk and indie-rock elements into a spellbinding work of art, exploring the nuances not just of heartbreak but of growing up. As Tarver herself says, ‘These songs are me making my way through. Giving myself permission to not have the answers. Letting myself feel it all. The pain, the joy, the confusion, the bittersweet in-between…I learned that uncertainty can be an open door. And that change is a constant invitation I want to learn to accept.’
In the past year, many artists have looked inward for inspiration, getting even more introspective in their songwriting and stripping back their sound to allow that work to shine through. Katelyn Tarver is a shining example of that change, with Subject to Change. It is an absolute delight of a record that allows every track to speak for itself, building a comprehensive picture of Tarver as an artist, songwriter and human, shining a spotlight on the human experience in order to make the listener feel validated in their emotion and not feel alone.
Of course, Tarver handles breakups – as every artist does – but she does this with a tender and delicate care that make these tracks stand out from the masses. So, on ‘Out of Excuses’ she sings out the toxins of a relationship, providing a moment of immense grace at being treated wrong. ‘Can you teach me / How to smooth over the edges and make it all clean and nice / Compartmentalise.’ It’s a stunning piano ballad that, while vilifying an ex, does so with poise and a greater degree of grace than we are capable of – though, this is made more raw on ‘Hurt Like That’ which offers a free-flowing and delicately done wish for revenge, ramped up in intensity thanks to a thrumming guitar part. ‘Broke my heart I thought I’d never get it back / I want you to hurt like that.’ The other part of this puzzle is provided by ‘Year From Now’ that is a pluckily, moving acoustic track, filled with heart ache about the hope to fast forward to the moment when a break-up is well and truly in the past. ‘I can’t wait for a year from now / When all the little things I’ve learned to love, I’ll learn to live without.’ This trilogy of tracks, later on in the record provide a rounded sense of closure.
Breakups only scratch the surface for the theme of the record and her showcase of the complexity of relationships. On ‘Back To You,’ Tarver sings about allowing space to move and evolve in a relationship – ‘Cause I was scared of changing / Losing faith in whatever we had left / Now we’re strangers / We ain’t the same’ and continues that exploration in ‘All Our Friends Are Splitting Up’ that looks into the fragility of love and relationships and her fear surrounding that. ‘All our friends are splitting up / Never saw ’em fall out of love / And I would die if that was us.‘ Elsewhere, Tarver does allow space to celebrate her gratitude for love on ‘Glad I Got You’ that is amped up in intensity thanks to the vocoder treatment on her vocal.
Still, a greater portion of the record is allocated to an exploration of Tarver’s own psyche. So, on the ethereally, free-flowing melody on ‘Nicer,’ Tarver sings about the joy in being her authentic self – ‘Look at all the time and energy I wasted / Feels like overnight I forgot how to fake it’ – and continues this through to a look in the contradictions within herself on the stunning, acoustic track ‘At The Same Time’ that offers a majorly reflective moment. Two of the biggest standout moments on the record though are brought in on ‘Downhill From Here’ and ‘Shit Happens,’ two tracks that together will provide comfort for so many that they are not alone in their own struggles. The former is an intense, vulnerable, vocal moment, where Tarver questions where joy really lies in life – ‘I miss those younger days / When it all felt clear / And I knew what to fear / Is it all downhill from here?‘ – and on the latter, she moodily muses on the inevitability of life’s ups and downs in a gorgeous, swelling piano ballad ‘Sometimes shit just happens / Worse than you can imagine / Stop trying to make it make sense / Sometimes shit just happens.’
On most of Subject to Change, Tarver allows the tracks to speak for themselves, stripping back the production, allowing twinges of experimentation without allowing these to overshadow the fragility of her vocal and her lyrics. It’s a stunning record that will be a comfort blanket for many, providing moments of reflection on the human experience and on relationships. Tarver has a unique voice, both as a vocalist but as a songwriter and she is due the accolades that are sure to be added to her name as a result of this record.
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