“Start every song with when I was younger / ‘Cause I’m trying to make sense of it,” Your Hunni begins on “Angel,” incisively noting their own habits — and, moreover, their artistic purpose. It’s the second track and first single from their debut album, Welcome to the Party, which sees the Toronto singer-songwriter (and Exclaim! Class of 2022 grad) come into their resonant voice while mapping out all of the places where skin was shed and feathers were moulted along the way: Indonesia, the lookout in Bancroft, the land they were a product of.
Your Hunni has never shied away from using music as a vehicle for sifting through the nuances of their non-binary identity, queerness, and unhealthy coping mechanisms, but they sound more assured than ever, even in laying bare their lines of questioning. Anyone who’s been on any kind of healing journey can tell you that the moments of epiphany can tend to present themselves much more quietly than you might think they would, or there’s an initial “a-ha!” moment followed by the comedown of a lot of uncomfortable unpacking. Your Hunni’s lyrical vignettes stem from a place of hard-won acceptance, accountability, and forgiveness.
On the mic, it feels as though they’re singing from within the same room as you, reverb and beautifully recorded instrumentation ranging from orchestral-inspired resplendence (“Heartbreaker Hazel”) to driving indie pop guitar and percussion (“I’m Your Man,” “Happier When I’m Alone”), from spare acoustics (“Seawall”) to even dabbling in multi-part vocal harmony with her impressively rich range on “Digital Cig.” There’s no disparateness to this bricolage of sound, though — it’s all stitched together with the very fluidity that makes Your Hunni the tender teacher who, through re-parenting themselves in their art, nurtures us all.
Welcome to the party, indeed. We’re so glad to be here with you.
