In her second album, “Everywhere is Somewhere,” K. Flay has managed to encapsulate an incredibly broad range of emotion, from angst to new love. Her sound and lyrics breach an edginess that never fails to polarize listeners. “Everywhere is Somewhere” is not an album for a family roadtrip, but it will move or entertain many listeners.
The album starts off with a low-key, simplistic energy. “Dreamers” is about living an unconventional life, despite the inevitable doubts that surround it. K. Flay reflects on such doubts, watching her friends get married, have kids and work nine-to-five jobs, but she always decides that, as a creative-minded individual, she wants more than a cookie-cutter life.
“Giver” is an immediate favorite, with a catchy rock-back-and-forth beat that pulls its contemplative lyrics together. A song about the struggles of self-improvement, K. Flay admits to her unhealthy coping mechanisms and announces that she is “learning to live…trying to be better.” For anyone who has ever dealt with a hurricane of conflicting rationality and negativity, this song will be especially relatable. On her bad days, she admits, she turns to “screaming ‘cause I’ve got it too good to cry.”
At this point, things turn a bit darker. “Blood in the Cut” is a fantastic breakup anthem—angry, volatile, jaded and full of angst. And, of course, relatable and catchy. With this confessional song, K. Flay’s lyrics are all about surrounding herself with noise and superficial relationships to get her mind off her deep-seated pain.
“Champagne” defines “parental advisory.” K. Flay is remarkably honest about her personal demons and emotional hurdles. Although this song, in which K. Flay breaches into the territory of rapping, may feel like the angry ballad of a tween emo phase, many of its lyrics are surprisingly poetic.
She mentions that everyone has pieces missing, and concludes that, “my heart was never broken; it was circumcised,” meaning that she has always been emotionally stunted.
With a refreshing dose of positivity, “High Enough” is about love so strong that it helps to cure habits of substance abuse. “I don’t need drugs,” K. Flay says, “I’m already high enough. You got me good.”
“Black Waves” compares life to “running in a rat maze.” As she does in many of her songs, K. Flay points out the absurdities of being alive in a world in which things often make little sense. Next is “Mean It,” the album’s softest ballad. “When I say I love you I want to mean it,” she says, “Cause I say a lot of things that I don’t mean.”
A song about insecurity, hiding and fear, “Hollywood Forever” is naked and honest. “In the dark everything, it looks better,” K. Flay says. She admits to her concerns about her image and her habits, like feeling the urge to call her ex-boyfriend.
“For people feeling disillusioned or alienated,” according to K. Flay, the next song on the album is a protest anthem. “The President Has a Sex Tape,” is about the tabloid nature of our modern world and the unequal distribution of power and resources.
“You Felt Right” is about falling in love with the wrong person. “You took my hand and said the sun it rises in the east, but I came from the west,” she remembers. “I should have known, don’t trust a poet, cause they can’t do the math.” Everyone, at some point, has felt right in the wrong situation.
The album closes out with “Slow March,” which ends on a hopeful note. “It’s been a slow, slow start,” K. Flay admits. “But I knew that I could be somebody new.”
Not everyone will respond positively to K. Flay right away, inevitably. Her level of honesty is often unwelcome in the mainstream music landscape. She is a poet, and like most poets, she often finds herself feeling tortured, resulting in polarizing and complicated art.
