Vince Leigh’s Review: Narcissist by Katie Wighton

March 13, 2023March 14, 2023 Sheldon Ang

By Vince Leigh (ex drummer of Pseudo Echo, John Farnham and Tina Arena) of Australian Radio Promotions, for Sheldon Ang Media.

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Katie Wighton, the guitarist and vocalist in All Our Exes Live In Texas, began working on her solo records in 2019. Wighton has an extensive and quite impressive list of co-writing credits to her name, having worked with Colin Hay, Jenny Owens-Young (Panic! At The Disco), Jake Sinclair (Taylor Swift, Pink), Tony Buchen (The Preachers, Courtney Barnett, Montaigne) and Toby Dundas (The Temper Trap).

Narcissist is the lead single from her forthcoming album, The End, released on June 2 via ABC Music. Kicking off with the chorus and the song’s dominant melodic hook, Narcissist packs quite a punch for its two minutes and three seconds and wastes no time getting down to the marrow. We are thrown right into the deep end of this character re-evaluation and relationship post-mortem, enticed initially by Katie’s vocal and the rhythmic undertow accompanying it, but then almost instantly exposed to a succession of unfolding, transforming elements.

From the chorus’ blossoming resolve, we segue into the verse, a series of neatly arranged repetitive lines, augmented by a spare yet combustive instrumentation and a lusciously dry and direct production job. The pre-chorus follows, with its mood-shift chord change, vocal sweeteners and expiatory offering—though it appears that by all indications it is all actually ‘too late’—to then treat us to another round of the chorus, on this occasion, a more expansive version, one whose long notes unwind and melt, decelerating into a delightfully brief and dreamy bridge section. Along with its unambiguous directive, ‘Take me off your mailing list you know I wish we’d never kissed’, the bridge sets the tone for the final chorus, the pace ebbing and acting more as a kind of lingering effect before the final statement, ‘I can see it clearer than I’ve seen it before’.

Narcissist is a well-crafted, targeted kind of restitutive counterattack, whimsically poignant and shimmering with intellect, indie-pop energy, and sensibility.

Katie will be launching Narcissist with 2 exclusive shows:

22^nd April – The Lighthouse Collective, Point Lonsdale – Tickets HERE

27^th April – Shotkickers, Melbourne – Tickets HERE