Katie Pruitt Uses Subtlety to Make "Fools for the Fleeting" Her Most Authentic Work Yet
Released tonight, ahead of her Americana Fest set at Nashville’s Blue Room, Katie Pruitt’s third album, Fools for the Fleeting, displays Pruitt falling in love and analyzing the corrupt political state of America. As Pruitt told the Belmont Vision in an article published earlier this week, these facets combine a political intention to communicate her views in a way that would “make her conservative parents proud” with a goal to “showcase her queer identity in a more subtle way than how she’s historically presented it”.
The intention of displaying queer love subtly but without caution is abundant in “Orion’s Belt (featuring Sierra Hull)” and “As Far As Forever”. In the former, the esteemed mandolinist’s riffing pairs wonderfully with the sentiment of, “If I hit it big, I wouldn’t spend it on myself, I’d buy her all the diamonds in Orion’s Belt”. The sweet song, one of my favorites on the record, is the only song besides the closer, “As Far As Forever”, that explicitly refers to Pruitt’s partner as female. The closer puts romance and Pruitt’s relationship with her parents’ views in the same place, over acoustic guitar and an orchestra. Pruitt opens the song with, “My father keeps asking me why I stopped having faith in that place people go when we die” and closes with, “I’ll always be with you, though, as far as forever goes”.
The dichotomy of those two lyrics is an excellent way to summarize the album. There’s the start-of-relationship apprehension in “Disaster” – “If I fell in love with you would that really be such a disaster?” Pruitt tells the Belmont Vision that this is the most overtly queer song on the record, encapsulating the hesitancy her current girlfriend felt entering her first queer relationship. Listeners can see why these nerves might’ve been warranted, considering the album’s lead single, “Disaster”. The second verse contains the album’s bluntest statement on political corruption, “Handed the wrong man the keys, capitols under siege, and somehow it’s you and me that he is blaming.”
The complexity increases when you add “Little Boxes” into the mix. The song refers to how it’s easy to feel trapped by social media and technology in the digital age, and thus why the proper course of action is to, “Take a walk, cut the cord, knock on your neighbor’s door” because “Face to face is the only cure”. Breaking out of such a trap is difficult but worth it.
Pruitt takes a moment in “Blackout (Feat. Nolan Taylor)” to explain where love and hardship (or, taking a literal interpretation, catastrophe) find their way together. Over a boom-y beat and pedal steel guitar sound, Pruitt sings, “If the sun went cold, I know where I’d go, I would drive to your house in a blackout”. Death is a common theme on this album, also finding its way into the love song “Not Scared to Die”. Taking a similar notion from the safe love feeling of “Orion’s Belt”, Pruitt expresses finding comfort in her girlfriend even when her fears of mortality take the lead, over production carried by synths and oohing.
But still, avoidance finds its way through. On the opening track, “Matching Tattoos”, Pruitt recalls the shock she felt upon the end of a previous relationship. The anxious aftereffects of such a situation are carried on again near the end of the album in the title track, when Pruitt ominously describes how, “We split the rent but doubled the pain... wishing somebody had told us God numbered the days”. In “If I Call You Mine”, Pruitt worries more, this time about whether she can live up to the standards of, presumably, her girlfriends ex-boyfriend. She stabs listeners at the end of the bridge with, “Will you look at me while dreaming of a different life?”
Never fear, “Orion’s Belt” and “As Far As Forever”, close the album on a happy note.
As the album ends, I’m astounded by how subtle but still obvious the themes of queer love and government corruption are. Pruitt encapsulates feeling uneasy trying to make love work over the din, and effectively displays how it’s all worth it. Between Sierra Hull and Nolan Taylor’s features, the album feels a hug from a loving family who will be there for you as you walk through the potholes and valleys of life. Listen to Fools for the Fleeting here.
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