What a Relief

MUNA's lead singer Katie Gavin has just announced her debut solo album What A Relief, out this October on longtime MUNA champion Phoebe Bridgers' label Saddest Factory. This is a set of songs that Gavin felt didn't quite fit with the band's sound, inspired by songwriters Gavin admires such as Tracy Chapman, Ani DiFranco, and Tori Amos, and features a duet with Mitski. - Flying Out

Katie Gavin’s debut What A Relief taps into the  unguarded self-possession and homespun pop  sensibility of singers like Alanis Morissette, Fiona Apple  and Ani DiFranco, and uses their tenacity as a north star  for Gavin’s own trek towards self-discovery. “This record  spans a lot of my life – it’s about having a really deep  desire for connection, but also encountering all the  obstacles that stood in my way to be able to achieve that,  patterns of isolation or even boredom with the real work  of love” they say. 

Written over the course of seven years, What A Relief  comprises a set of songs that Gavin always loved but  which “had something in them” that she and her  bandmates felt didn’t quite fit within the universe they  were trying to cultivate with MUNA. Many of them were  written on acoustic guitar, and are rooted in “a style of  music that’s very much in my blood, and natural for me,”  as typified by the Women & Songs CDs that Gavin loves,  which compiled music by artists like Tracy Chapman, Tori  Amos and Sarah McLachlan.

That openness of spirit is the overwhelming character of  What A Relief, an album that’s refreshing in its  willingness to accept people as they come, even as it  remains in dogged pursuit of a life that’s kinder, wiser  and more loving. Gavin’s explorations of desire and  intimacy feel time-worn and necessary – songs that  might teach a generation if not how to live, exactly, then  at least how to look within oneself for guidance about  how to move forward. 

Tracklist:

TBA