Katie Gavin : What A Relief

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. 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 purs