“It ain’t pretty when you’re growing old, not for a woman and not for a girl” intones Kira Skov.
Well it ain’t for a bloke either, Kira, but we defer to you because it is International Women’s Day on Saturday Match 8th, and you’re getting your six penny worth in early; fair enough.
The track ‘It ain’t pretty’ explores the experience of aging as a woman in a youth-obsessed culture, balancing between rage and reflection on both the internal changes and the way society perceives women as they grow older.
I recall Emmy the Great did something similar a few years ago with her hard hitting song and video ‘Paper Forest (In the Afterglow of Rapture)’ and Kira’s song carries at least as much gravitas.
Kira describes it as “a sort of gospel-punk song that rebels against ageism, seen from my own—a woman’s—perspective, while also “carrying the roots of where I come from and the music I wrote in my younger years with my old band, Kira and the Kindred Spirits”.
There’s a brilliant opening line, “It ain’t pretty when you’re growing old/the little punks stole your rock and roll”.
I wonder how many time served artists have been shafted like that by kids covering their work. Badly.
The other side of the coin applies though. We do get to hear actual or stylistic covers by young artists that do enhance the original.
“Get me out of this shit show/try some of these hormones now” she pleads. Then “it’s a young man’s world and it’s never been easy”. I’m sure those nice Tate brothers and their legion of followers would agree.
The wonders of technology, including the dreaded AI, have helped her create a video with Anna Tang that shows her in three life stages – as a child; a young woman and an older, more mature one in the present day. Also in a fourth stage as a fleeting skeleton image that could have been taken from ‘The Exorcist’ and a talking, moving angelic memorial statue (another Exorcist franchise image if I remember).
It’s all very clever indeed; lyrically, audibly and visually. In all three categories there are hints of P J Harvey about it.
Meanwhile it also promotes the concept of the beauty in decay, the Japanese principle of wabi sabi and one that the aforementioned Emmy also incorporated into her song.
I have a little problem in that it seems to conflate three separate issues: feminism, ageing and misogyny. I wish I had the time for a deeper dive into it because there’s a fair bit of unraveling to do and I might be missing the point.
And it also raises the elephant in the room as an alternative subject, namely that of AI. While most musicians are rightly terrified of it, especially in the UK where the government’s proposed changes to copyright law, allowing AI companies to train their models using copyrighted work without a license, has created a furore in the British music industry (and elsewhere) prompting a protest by more than 1,000 artists, including big names like Damon Albarn, Kate Bush, and Annie Lennox by releasing a silent album titled ‘Is This What We Want?’
But here Kira embraces it, especially by creating an avatar of herself as an angelic child. So what is her view of AI? I’d be happy to see that being dealt with on the next song.
Actually this one serves as a bonus track on Kira’s forthcoming album, scheduled to drop in May, as it stands out from the rest of the material both thematically and in terms of sound.
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