There is a lot of buzz circling the music of Kassi Valazza. Since her self-released debut in 2019, the singer/songwriter has captivated audiences with her natural sense of melody and vulnerable, poetic lyrics. It is almost impossible for every album with high anticipation around its release to match our lofty expectations but on Valazza’s latest LP, she does just that and more. Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing is the backhanded self-titled album and marks the first full album from Valazza since her undeniable debut. Over the course of 10 songs, she looks at life through an all-seeing lens to expose the beauty in darkness and vice versa. Valazza is a realist who spins surrealist personifications into her writing in order to more accurately articulate her surroundings and bring the listener fireside for an intimate listening experience.
Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing plays like the reflection of water dancing on the trees above it, it is a mesmerizing spectacle that toys with the mind. Valazza appears to sing with a quiver in her lip although her confidence as a performer shines through her bleak lyrics. The artist is able to convert her observations and the proceeding emotions and filter them through Americana roots tropes in order to land on the expansive yet ambient sound that flows through her sophomore LP.
The vivid imagery displayed in the album’s intro “Room In The City ” is matched with the expert storytelling penned for the emotional “Watching Planes Go By” which exposes Valazza’s inner thoughts that most would keep locked away. Her writing has always used a plethora of literary devices, although personification plays a bigger role than ever on Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing. She brings the lifeless new meaning which is a metaphor for her songwriting in itself as Valazza is able to create magic out of the dreariest of situations. On “Long Way From Home”, she approaches the idea of loneliness with a gentle touch and creates a stirring ballad out of one of the more volatile emotions a person can experience. Valazza’s songwriting is both isolating and welcoming at once, making the lyrics of Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing excruciatingly vulnerable which allows us to hear the unfiltered perceptions of a poet attempting to locate a silver lining in a world of gray.
Valazza lays out her truths over a bed of ambiance and twang. For her sophomore album, the artist brought in the likes of TK & The Holy Know-Nothings to help create the sonic direction of Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing. It is a direction that finds solace in twangy psychedelia and pushes the boundaries of what folk and Americana can sound like. “Canyon Lines” features a droning synth chord that dances with the flinger plucking of an acoustic while a single like “Corners” puts the band on full display while still lingering in the world of ambiance. Each arrangement leans on a balancing act of sorts, attempting to sound full while still using silence as an instrument that adds to the overall tone of Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing. The album sounds sparse but the nuances of the musicianship play just as big a role as Valazza’s songwriting in the narrative of the LP.
Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing feels like a look into the personal journal of Kassi Valazza as she traverses her experiences with a hyperfocus on the smaller things. While her songwriting uses literary devices to explain lofty emotions, this style allows the artist to make sense of the senseless and more accurately display her feelings rather than delivering them with bluntness. Her approach to her sophomore album allowed it to contradict its title, proving that Valazza is more attuned to reality than most as she holds nothing back in her lyrics and gives the album a level of intimacy that can be jarring at times. For 10 songs, Valazza and her backing band put their hearts out in the open for all of us to dissect and perceive, mimicking the approach the artists used to create the album, it leaves you to explore your own emotions and surroundings while Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing creates a gentle and moving soundtrack that hits like the first cold breeze of Fall.
