We’re placed into a sense of youthful hopelessness from the outset. ‘Stuck Neverlasting’ is a direct and angry song about growing up in the internet age.

“So shell shocked by the complexities
and my mind
and all the rest that is still left to be defined”

‘Sensory Deprivation’ is about being in your twenties but still not quite an adult, while ‘Heart Container’ explores coping with challenges both past and future, and the seemingly mundane tasks we concern ourselves with to help get by (“so I’ll play single player role playing videogames until I die,” Llinas sings, “while playing through Earthbound for the seventh time”).

‘Stamina’ is the best song about arguing on the internet you’ll hear all year, capturing the use of cool ironic detachment to escape any sense of knowledge or belief. This is followed by, ‘Living Room at Noon,’ perhaps the brightest beam of light on the record. “I think there’s a future in,” Llinas sings. “Dissolving into kindness, becoming one with the lightness”.

Final track ‘Self-Diagnosis’ is one of the record’s saddest, based in the aftermath of a breakup. But despite the emotional turmoil, the record ends on a glimmer of something better, the indication that the narrator hasn’t given up completely.

“And I just hope one day
that everything will be okay”

On Velvet Waltz, Human Kitten sounds at once frustrated and patiently resigned, destructively apathetic and bursting at the seams with feeling and love. It’s an existential crisis in the age of Snapchat and Twitter, anger and irony twin masks that attempt to hide hurt and vulnerability.
You can get the album now from the Human Kitten Bandcamp page.

The post Human Kitten – Velvet Waltz appeared first on Various Small Flames.

This isn’t to say that the album is sloppy or thrown together, it’s quite the contrary. Over a year in the making, Truth Hurts is a well put together album of admirable variety. There is some shouting (‘There is a Ghost’), some emotion (‘A Letter’) and some sounds that would fit nicely on the soundtrack of Tony Hawk 2 (‘The Pond’). In other words, all the things you could want in an album.

Truth Hurts is available on a pay-what-you-want basis over at the Among Giants Bandcamp page. I’m sure a small donation would be very much appreciated.

The post Among Giants – Truth Hurts appeared first on Various Small Flames.