It’s no surprise that most people are desperately craving a little bit of sunshine right now. Halifax artist Burry has just the cure for that craving with their EP, Yellow Paint, but it doesn’t come without a few clouds.
On this album, Burry views the world through a murky lens. They have no use for rose-coloured glasses and explore life’s more depressing pitfalls in a way that’s dim and realistic. That being said, the songs are sonically very mellow, as warm and sunny as the yellow paint the EP gets its namesake from. Though just like Vincent Van Gogh’s attempt at inner happiness by eating yellow paint, Burry proves that a colourful filter doesn’t change reality.
Burry’s experiences as a queer person heavily shape the narrative of this EP, as one might expect. This identity has always been something Burry has been vocal about, but it’s only recently that they’ve opened up more about their relationship with gender and about their identity as someone who is non-binary. Coming to terms with these truths can often be a tumultuous experience, and while Burry doesn’t spend too much time tackling that explicitly on the EP, it’s definitely an underlying thread.
It comes through the most on the title track, “Yellow Paint”. Burry equates the struggles of being doubted as an artist that Van Gogh experienced with their own doubt as a member of a marginalized community—both personally and how that fits into the music industry.
This sense of doubt is something that Burry continues to explore. “Figs & Apricots” is a very “tough love” sort of track, where Burry balances on the line between pessimism and realism.
Maybe “great expectations” can “lead to great depressions” as Burry sings on this track, but how can anyone believe life is that depressing and abysmal with a horn section that fun? That’s probably just the sort of naïve optimism Burry is expressing frustration with on this track.
But even “She Said”, a heartbreak song about getting over someone you never actually dated, is not as mopey as its subject matter could be. It’s bluesy and rhythmic, even as Burry desperately ponders, “How can I recover from something I never had?” The following track, “Not Me Anymore (Blocked)” is as dark as Burry ventures as they vent frustrations to someone who they’re unable to contact anymore.
Burry’s writing is deeply personal, but they have a way of packaging these feelings in a way that most people can relate to. Their sense of kinship to Van Gogh might be rooted in sympathy for shared insecurities, but their mutual capacity to evoke emotion with their art is just as real of a connection.