Kristeen Young - Live! at the Witch's Tit (2017)

Kristeen Young’s steely, indefatigable identity is as resistant to categorization as her music, which has been described as “eclectic,” “operatic-punk,” and “intergalactic” without ever quite capturing it. Her songwriting was born out of trauma, after all, a way to escape what she describes as a “nightmarish” upbringing in adoptive and foster homes. It makes sense that her sound would capture the peripatetic nature of youth, that merging of deep pain and ecstatic discovery.

Her new single, “These Are the Things I’m Not the Most”, tells that story in a striking way. The first single from her forthcoming new album, Live at the Witch’s Tit, it’s a sprawling, anarchic ode to embracing individuality in the face of sneering opposition. “I prepared the way for John the Baptist,” she sings with a smirk. “Then, became the way for Jesus Christ/ I sat the truths in the mouths of Buddha/ Then, bore Allah between my thighs/ But, still, I’ll never be your equal.” That’s okay, though, because Young refuses to be judged by the standards of yore: “I know I’ll never equal you/ I know you’ll never see my shine/ There’s no age/ There’s no race/ There’s no gender/ Here, here, here.” Preach.