REVIEW: Hayley Kiyoko — Citrine EP
Former Disney star Hayley Kiyoko’s Citrine EP is a refreshing look at love and self-acceptance away from the male gaze and into something that is purely her own. In an interview with Teen Vogue, the singer commented that the days leading up to her latest release felt like being ready for the prom several hours too early. “I want [listeners] to feel empowered,” Kiyoko said. “I want them to lose their self-doubt and kind of walk with a little swagger in their step.”
Kiyoko first drew attention with her independently released EP, This Side of Paradise, with “Girls Like Girls”. The song, which plays with the idea of an “anthem for a girl stealing another guy’s girl,” achieved viral status that earned her over 40 million hits on YouTube. While many videos have featured same-sex relationships between women, too often do they feel catered towards the male gaze. Kiyoko manages to escape this by creating stories with honest conflicts, such as the video for “Cliff’s Edge”, and of course, “Gravel to Tempo”. Despite the pastel aesthetics and her cool girl energy, Kiyoko’s work does not feel performative, but real and provocative.
Citrine is no different. Departing from the vagueness of “Girls Like Girls”, Kiyoko explicitly uses “she” throughout the EP. Each song on the offering blends into the next seamlessly, painting an image that fans have come to refer to as “soft sapphos.” Sugary-sweet, the singer is already being compared to Astralwerks’ dark horse and alt-pop artist Halsey. Though her brand of pop is less about the details, the EP is just as cinematic. Promotion for the release was headed up with “Gravel to Tempo”, a hazy, hypnotic track that addresses self-acceptance in the face of external pressures. Shrugging off the need for validation through others, she declares, “I’ll do this my way, don’t matter if I break.”
There’s a lingering theme of self-assurance and confidence throughout the release, each track pretty forward about themes. Perhaps the boldest track on the release, “One Bad Night” is less coy than previous tracks. “You make me feel like I wanna be bad,” she sings with a smirk. There’s a directness about attraction that builds amidst the thrumming, one that departs from the ambiguity of “you haunt me,” in “Ease My Mind” and “I want to show you the shape I’m in,” in “Pretty Girl”. “Bad Night” is high-energy, driving, and there’s something in it that feels like a late summer night. If “Bad Night” is the last night of summer, “Palace” is the send off. Ending the 5-song release with a track about figuring out how to mourn, Kiyoko manages to make her release well-rounded, with self-discovery found in each line. Though the experiences that created the release may not be universally felt, each track is laden with the promise of possibility and celebration, no matter what’s on the other side.
Watch the video for “One Bad Night” below.
Warning for depictions of street harassment and violence against a trans woman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_wXWFnTjxU
Follow Hayley Kiyoko:
Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/HayleyKiyoko/
Twitter — twitter.com/hayleykiyoko
This article originally appeared on Safer Scene in 2016.
