We previewed The Man in Me, the EP by London’s Kitty Fitz on Sad Club Records, back in September with a piece on single, ‘Life of the Party’. A song which possesses “all of the tenderness and self-deprecative wit that made the previous EP so special,” as we wrote, “but held within a vivid pop sound that nods to the likes of Caroline Polachek.” Such a combination of moods is a central part of Fitz’s work, which she herself describes as “introspective, hyperbolic, tongue-in-cheek, and honest,” and the EP feels like the first time the potential of these twin threads has been fully realised as something cohesive and complete.
The result is essentially an emotional arc traced through songs, beginning with the opener and title track. “This song really marks a place in time for me, and pinpoints how I was feeling at the very beginning of the writing of this EP,” Fitz explains. “I was feeling a sense of complete rejection from myself, like there was something wrong with me and the desire to push everything and everyone away from me. The avoidance I was feeling is the big theme throughout the EP. A message I’ve learned from writing this song was that there’s power in never quite being exactly who people want you to be, even if the journey to learning it is hard and flawed.” Watch the video below, with photography by Jody Evans, collage by Ewan McIntosh and visualiser by Tallulah Webb:
From there, we follow Kitty Fitz on the path out of this nadir. Both ‘Laughing Stock’ and ‘Life of the Party’ explore ideas of social anxiety and difficulties with commitment, pairing unguarded ideas of self-rejection and avoidance with quirky charm to open up the relatability of such things. And by closer ‘End of the World’, this act of opening up comes to form its own therapeutic purpose. As though the path to self-acceptance leads only through vulnerability and honesty.
The Man in Me is out now via Sad Club Records and you can get it from Bandcamp.
