A lot of people, including us, were big fans of Nashville singer-songwriter Katy Kirby’s 2021 album Cool Dry Place. That number includes the braintrust at ANTI- Records. The label has signed Kirby, who is now based in Brooklyn, and is releasing her new single “Cubic Zirconia” today with a music video by Emma Montesi.

The track glides, glimmers, and churns, gorgeously carrying along Kirby’s conversational verse. She offered this statement:

I’ve been trying to write this song for nearly four years, but it only came into focus for me when I fell in love with a girl for the first time. It’s an attempt to say something that I don’t think I’m smart enough to articulate outside of the song – something about how much I admire when someone is unembarrassed of being explicit about the cosmetic and aesthetic choices they make for themselves. Why wouldn’t you love the little tricks of their trade – the way they wear makeup, the clothes and mannerisms that make them feel safest and most themselves – why wouldn’t these little tricks be the most endearing artifacts of their inner essence? If you loved someone, why would you not love those choices? It’s an honor to get that close to someone – close enough to see how they construct the image of themselves with which they move through the world as best they can (as we all do). Why wouldn’t that be enough?



Cubic Zirconia! A lab-grown diamond. A salute to whatever the world looks down on as “artificial” — even a defense of artifice. It seems like naturalness is not only a dangerously vague and subjective concept, but that whenever those concepts get invoked, the invoker is almost invariably being manipulative or even malicious. Insofar as the line between authentic/fake, natural/unnatural, organic/synthetic artificial/genuine is hopelessly thin. Insofar as it’s a line that shifts constantly and doesn’t seem to be in anyone’s interest except the people who’ve decided that they’re the most qualified to draw that line. What a useless concept. What an extremely suspicious concept to leverage in assessing someone’s worth. What a sanctimonious little scam!

Watch below.