Review: All Our Exes Live in Texas Vocalist Katie Wighton Makes Her Solo Debut on 'KIT'

When one member of a band records a solo album, it usually goes one of two ways. Either the artist uses the opportunity to showcase her own songwriting but, musically, stays well within the musical comfort zone occupied by her regular group. While that can be fun, especially for an artist who doesn't often write in the group setting, it is also kind of a letdown. After all, you have all of those other full band albums to listen to. Much more interesting is when an artist whose band occupies one genre uses a solo album to stretch into new directions. That's the choice made by KIT, aka Katie Wighton from ARIA-winning Australian folk-country vocal group All Our Exes Live in Texas who is released her self-titled debut EP on Nov. 13.

Grounded from touring with her band because of COVID-19, Wighton used the down time to connect with some of her musical friends, including pop singer Ali Barter, Grammy nominated producer and songwriter Jacob Sinclair (Panic! At the Disco, Weezer, Taylor Swift), and another Panic! At the Disco collaborator, singer/songwriter Jenny Owen-Youngs. With such a diverse, and vastly different from the subtle harmonies that are All Our Exes Live in Texas' trademark, cast, Wighton has crafted a tight five song EP (it clocks in at an economically pop-friendly 15 minutes) that makes no attempt to present one genre narrative. The EP's songs range widely from pop (“Make Your Mind Up”) to country ballads (“Stranger”) to punk (“You Act Like a Child”) to old fashioned rock and roll (“King Size Bed”).

If not handled well, this whiplash of genre switches could have led to an album that falls apart in its lack of cohesion. Instead, it comes off as a celebration of youthful experimentation. Wighton's surprisingly versatile vocals carry the weight, sounding equally at home spitting furious punk venom as crooning folk songs.

Considering this fact, it's probably not surprising that the album's highlight is the song that is the farthest from All Our Exes Live in Texas, “You Act Like a Child.” I don't know how much of Nashville-based punk act Bully they get on Australian radio, but Wighton reminds me of a cross between that band's Alicia Bognanno and Blondie's Debbie Harry. The song, about toxic men, does a fine job of bouncing between exasperation and anger, with the verses sung in a sweet, if slightly acerbic, voice, with lines like “if you call my name, honey, hope you know I'll come running. Bet you'll never call, so I'm left here crying alone over you and me.” But then a distorted guitar lick crashes before Wighton repeats the line “over you and me” but this time in an angry snarl.

Another highlight is “King Size Bed.” A straight ahead guitar-bass-drum rock and roller with a touch of The Runaways and The Go-Gos, the song is about obsessive love, that early portion of a relationship where not even the same bed is close enough you “just can't seem to get close enough.”

I've been a big fan of All Our Exes Live in Texas since randomly catching them at Americanafest a couple of years ago and walking away with them as my show of the weekend. And while KIT is a very different animal, much of what drew me to that band is present here as well; clever lyrical turns, tight musicianship, and a refusal to take the well-traveled highway when the musical backroads offer so much more interesting views.