Album Review: Amythyst Kiah, Wary + Strange

At face value, there’s a lot of uncertainty tied to Amythyst Kiah’s third release Wary + Strange. The title evokes feelings of self-doubt and criticism and on the cover, Kiah looks like she’s leaving her body. During the song “Sleeping Queen,” when she sings, “even if I’m wide awake, I stay in a dream like state just trying to stay alive,” the album artwork becomes even more vivid.

But Kiah - who, alongside Rhiannon Giddens, Leyla McCalla, and Allison Russell, is a member of Americana supergroup Songs of Our Native Daughters - is very present on Wary + Strange. She confronts her trauma, unhealthy coping mechanism, and experiences as a Black queer woman and even though the album has sadness and anxieties, Kiah sounds self-assured. In a recent interview with Billboard, Kiah explains the confident tone of the album: “hiding myself to please everybody wore me down. In order to truly be happy and fulfill my purpose in life, I had to embrace who I honestly am, in every way.”

Wary + Strange is a bluesy country record that flows between dusty and vibrant tones. Nominated for Best American Roots Song at the 2019 Grammy’s, “Black Myself” has a stomping rhythm that’s utterly captivating, “Firewater” is light enough to walk on water, and on “Tender Organs,” we hear the best of both sonic worlds as Kiah and her band move from booming verses to a smokier and softer interlude led by Blake Mills’ guitar work. Across the album, the instrumentation puts Kiah’s remarkable voice on a pedestal so that her words are always the centrepiece.

Wary + Strange was released June 18, 2021 on Rounder Records.
Listen to it here.