Day 41: Cat Burns – early twenties
Album art courtesy of Since '93 and RCA Records
I wanted something interesting but not too heavy to listen to while I do all the necessary admin not to feel like I look slightly ogre-like when I leave the house. I’ve also just started the UK TV show Celebrity Traitors and Cat Burns is on it. No spoilers, but she seems like an absolute delight of a person, so I thought I’d listen to her debut album early twenties.
Cat Burns is another artist who got big by blowing up on TikTok during lockdown. Her 2020 single “Go” started making rounds on the app in 2022 and the song ended up peaking at number 2 on the UK singles chart. She’s since become known for her beautiful voice and singer-songwriter pop songs that are inspired by her background in listening to gospel music and artists like Tori Kelly, Ed Sheeran and Lily Allen.
As the title suggests, early twenties is Cat Burns coming to terms with the turmoil that comes with being in your early twenties, with songs about anxiety, fear of loneliness, struggling with your self-confidence and falling in and out of love. She has said she wants her songs to make people feel less alone, knowing that someone else is out there feeling like that, too. The album isn’t too maudlin, though, it’s more positive and supportive than sad. The tone of it can be pretty much summarised as “it’s OK, you’ll be fine, we all feel that way sometimes”.
Her music is very sweet. I’m sure in my early 20s, I would have loved hearing something like this. I can also appreciate her talent in writing and her beautiful voice. There’s something very touching about her lyrics, they’re both very personal and relatable and she manages to capture something about being young and confused very well.
It’s a good debut record, especially from someone who was 24 when it was released. 7/10. Her next album How To Be Human is out at the end of this month, and I’ll definitely give it a listen – Cat Burns feels like one of those young artists who have the potential to do something great.