Ali Barter has a knack for channelling messy, disparate emotions into cohesive tracks.
We saw it on her 2017 debut album ‘A Suitable Girl’, and she’s returned the frankly titled ‘Ur a Piece of Shit’.
It’s an unconventional love letter, created with and for her best friends about the strength of their shared experience as young women.
On the surface the track appears to be a scuzzed-out, pop-punk rager, underpinned by Ali’s distinctive, classically trained vocals. But dig a bit deeper and you’ll find the song’s nuance.
The title is no criticism – Ur A Piece Of Shit’ is actually said with love – and dark themes are lightened by the world’s oldest psychological salve – humour.
"Ur A Piece of Shit is an ode to my best friends,” Ali explains. “It’s about the things we went through as teenagers and how they’ve affected us in adult life, and how those experiences have bound us together.
"I also invited my girls into the studio to sing on the song. So, you can hear them all in there – my little Piece Of Shit Choir.”
Continuing on the path of dark humour, the track's visuals allow Ali to explore (and ultimately accept) the multifaceted personalities of we all hide within us.
“In this music video, I wanted to show all the sides of myself: the insecure part; the self-conscious part; the rebellious side; and the vain side. I thought it would be interesting to bring all these sides to my personality out in the open and then kill them” says Ali.
“By killing them, in a way I lay them to rest – but really, it’s actually a way of accepting these parts of myself and saying, ‘I’m good as me’. The same way that my girlfriends have to accept themselves, and we accept each other. At the end of it all, of course, I know these personalities are a part of me, so; I’m fucked.”
Check out the video for ‘Ur a Piece of Shit’ below.
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