“Animal” by Kye Kye, Saturday, August 14, 2021

In March, I talked about Kye Kye's 2014 single, "I Already See It"  and gave a brief history of the band and their connection to the Christian music scene. Since their 2014 release, the 4-piece band, originally composed of siblings Olga, Timothy, and Alex Yagolnikov along with Olga's husband, Thomas Phelan, now is a duo of Olga and Timothy. They broke their six-year hiatus last year, releasing an eerie single titled "A Forest," an electronic rhapsody incorporating singing and spoken word and scary sounding electronic tones. Then, in June of this year, the duo started releasing a series of two-track singles that would be part of their July 30 release of the 16-track Arya. But with Kye Kye's hiatus and without a record label, the album is quite under the radar. One listener on Twitter called the album, "an ode to Bowie and Brian Eno," and that sounds appropriate. Much of the tracks are not catchy--they don't often follow a pop-song formula nor do they lend themselves to the dance floor. It's a different Kye Kye, and some longtime fans may be asking, what's up?

LOOKING FOR LIFE AS A STORY. What's different about 2021's Kye Kye and 2014's is not only musical. Vocalist Olga Yagolnikov Phelan trades vaguely spiritual lines for the cryptically cynical. It seems that the lyrics on Arya are about the dissolving of a relationship, leaving listeners to wonder if Olga is writing about her husband or ex-husband. Arya still uses spiritual imagery, perhaps more so than the band's prior releases. But the usage of spiritual imagery in Arya is related to hurt and betrayal. "Animal" attests to the speaker being "cynical" and the speaker seems to be the instigator and caught up in a "holy lie." When the "holy lie" is realized, the lover "write[s] a story, so all the town knows" thus shaming the speaker. By the end of the ordeal, the speaker begs "Let me free." As neither Olga nor Timothy have explicitly stated what the lyrics are about, it's not fair to project the following story onto Olga; however, when the band released their 2011 album, Young Love, the lyrics were much more optimistic. A common story plays out among the devout: marry young, encounter problems, divorce, question your devotion. I've seen this story play out growing up and it continues today. The young spark of love of high school sweethearts burns out as individuals grow older and experience more of the world. If the spark of love was also a lie, was the belief that pushed for the early marriage also a lie?  

HOLY LIE, I LIED. From Allan's earliest days in Sabbath school, besides the felt board lessons of Old Testament Bible stories--of Noah building the ark, of Elijah calling fire down from heaven, of Jonah swallowed by a big fish--he remembered one principle lesson: "Thou shalt not lie." "God will never lie to us," Mrs. Davis, a grey-haired woman who taught Primary, before Allan's baby blonde darkened. All the other older women to Allan and his sister were "grandma" or "aunt" in the tight-knit church, but Mrs. Davis insisted to Allan's mother that she be called "Mrs. Davis." Years later, Allan's mom told her children that Mrs. Davis had scolded her on several occasions about the children's behavior as she had been the chief old crone of the run-down church building. Just like every child learns not to lie to parents and building trust, Allan was taught the lesson of "Thou shalt not lie" at home and at school. From sneaking out of bed at night to steal a cookie to an embarrassing game on the school bus with another boy in which the loser had to expose himself--whenever the lie was found out, Allan remembered God's wrath. He thought about the Old Testament punishments--ground swallowing up, bears attacking, dogs lapping up the blood of the corpse. As he got older, Allan heard sermons about "The father of lies" who was currently deceiving the world, telling Christians to worship on Sunday, when the true day was Saturday. "Satan has deceived the world, but historical sources tell us the truth about who is really behind this lie." Pastor Jim's sermons left a knot in Allan's stomach as he thought of the tribulation to come. And late at night he thought about the lies on which his life was based. How confessing his sins would inevitably lead to shame and banishment. He knew deep down, he could never recover from this sin. So, it was much better to live a lie.

https://genius.com/Kye-kye-animal-lyrics