Photo: ItsForGotham
Will Shenton
From the moment I heard the opening bars of KYYN's debut single, "Walk On Water," I was pretty sure I knew where it was going. This was another moody indie-electronic track in the vein of Hundred Waters, right? Well, in a way, yes. But there's a lot more going on under the surface than may be apparent at first.
It starts out simple enough, with slow-building synths and some hesitant, understated vocals—I got the impression that our narrator was someone who had been wronged, beaten down, and stood on the verge of capitulation. It's a pretty, though melancholy, progression, and eventually it builds into the first chorus: an explosive, cathartic movement that feels like a last, desperate act of rebellion.
The lyrics—"I'll walk on water / Make your head turn ... I'll walk on water / Make my getaway"—show two sides of the song's dilemma. On the one hand, our hero wants to escape, but on the other, she can't help but desire to be witnessed as she does so. It's the catch-22 of any good revenge fantasy.
What sets this track apart from those it otherwise resembles, though, is its finale. Rather than the expected climactic build, it goes for more of a denouement. The last minute is spent on relatively quiet instrumentals, with a haunting vocal line: "I'll get away." It feels as if the narrator is exhausted once again, weary from her choral outburst. But she remains nonetheless defiant.
Whether the antagonist of the song is a person or an abstract problem is something I'm not comfortable assuming on a review in which I've already made my fair share of leaps. For all I know, "Walk On Water" is an ode to jet ski racing. But regardless of subject matter, it's a hell of a jam, and I'd be surprised if KYYN doesn't see some pretty immediate accolades now that she's officially debuted.