Fish Bowl

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Kate Davis' journey continues to be fascinating. A one-time Presidential Scholar of the Arts, Davis is a conservatory-educated musician who started her journey as a bass-playing jazz prodigy who once recorded a very straight album of Christmas favorites. While living in Brooklyn may have provided the spark, the multi-instrumentalist Davis eventually morphed into a confessional indie rock solo singer-songwriter, suddenly changing her sound and look on 2019's Trophy, which was recorded after co-writing "Seventeen," a successful Sharon Van Etten single. To authenticate her place in the indie rock world, she next recorded a song-by-song cover of indie loner Daniel Johnston's Retired Boxer album. Secure in her new milieu, Davis is back with Fish Bowl, a collection of confident originals produced by Tim Bright and with Davis on most instruments; it's an album on which she mulls her new self and interactions with others. While she's still learning about arranging rock tunes, her lyrics, flecked with kernels of self-doubt but also fresh discovery about herself, are a very telling chronicle of the changes she has been through—testing how much of herself to reveal or withhold. On the love song "Ride or Die," which is acoustic in the verses and loud and electric in the choruses, Davis hilariously describes what being in a relationship has done to her self-image, "I feel like a crummy pie/ A shriveled fucked french fry." The verses in "Call Home" end with "We'll shut ourselves off to the world that we knew/ And create a new place to call home." In the cleverly-titled "Fructify" she admits "We're way too young to/ Know when we should leave the party." Finally, in Fish Bowl's most polished and complete tune, "Consequences," she ponders the value of confessionalism: "Without being emotional/ Just going through the motions/ Of one big self-sabotaging empty bitch." Led by energetically strummed acoustic guitars, "People Are Doing," where Davis plays guitars, bass, and keyboards, shows (as does the entire album) that Davis has also become a strong, sure vocalist. Filled with a growing musical presence, one that's rapidly found its footing, Fish Bowl confirms not only that Davis has surging talent but also that finding yourself can be worth the search.  © Robert Baird/Qobuz