Life as a Dog

Pop singer/rapper K. Flay can initially be seen as a less likely Lorde or the long lost offspring of Amanda Palmer who has come back with all the spite of one who has been unwillingly long lost. A couple listens later and she's more hip-hop and punk than all that, and drops the word "s**t" as much as possible, but her professional music back-story (bedroom-recording prodigy becomes major-label prisoner and decides to escape with this fan-funded effort) seems to be small potatoes compared to whatever caused all the angst released here. "Bad Things," "Can't Sleep," and "Wishing It Was You" are clever blows against the status quo filled with sharp lyrics and unanswerable questions, but as creative as it all is, any spin of the wheel randomly lands on "I'm smarter than the rest" or "I'm a triumph of will" or "I wish you'd all just go away." It's an unfiltered blast of talent and yet the odd emotional theme of Life as a Dog is that it's K. Flay's world and she wishes she had never been born into it.