In 2020, I didn’t have the energy to write about music at all, even when I really wanted to. As such, I will be posting reviews of my favorite albums of last year — approximately as the anniversary of their release approaches — to allow myself to capture what made me love them so much. Here is the fifth!
In the machine we call the music industry, the idea of identity is often used as promotional material or lyrical fodder, creating a narrative for an artist to step into who they’ve always wanted to be; it can also be used to reclaim a part of them they feel they may have lost playing the long game for a label. Kacy Hill’s second album — and first released independently — brilliantly titled Is It Selfish If We Talk About Me Again, meets at the intersection of these conceptual signposts, exploring her musicality without the expectations of Kanye West’s GOOD Music label thrust upon her.
While Hill’s debut record, 2017’s Like a Woman, played with darker sounds most often associated with West’s musical camp, Is It Selfish revels in a lightness not often found in her contemporaries. Basement-shaking bass still permeates most of the album, but bright synths and Hill’s thin but angelic voice elevate songs like “Just to Say” and “Unkind” to the penthouse suite.
Circling back to identity, the singer grapples with who she is to a myriad of people, including listeners, partners, and — most importantly — herself. Opener “To Someone Else” sees Hill casting doubt on the “be yourself” mantra thrust upon her as a musician; “Porsche” attempts to reverse the “overthinking the good things [she’s] got;” she contemplates the space she occupies in people’s lives in “Everybody’s Mother;” and “Six” — the song with the least amount of non sequiturs — details a journey that brings everything back into focus. Is It Selfish may not hold all the answers to Hill’s questions, but it’s a start, and that’s all she’s ever really asked for.
Rating: 7.5/10
Standout tracks: “I Believe in You,” “Everybody’s Mother,” “Palladium,” “Dinner”