Katie Pruitt - Mantras

I am capable. I am deserving. I am enough. These aren’t just words; they’re mantras.

They hold power, each syllable charged with the potential to turn past transgressions into possibilities and dulling traumas into something sharper – a honed tool for taking on life. After hitting a self-described low point, Katie Pruitt put into practice the repeating of mantras, and soon after, the path toward her sophomore album was paved.

Mantras resulted from these fleeting yet focused moments in the mirror—in contemplation, in repetition—where forgiveness, understanding, and above all, kindness began to reflect back. As Pruitt wades through the mire of experience, amplifying those once plaguing shudders of anxiety and sneers of self-doubt with songs like ‘Self Sabotage’ and ‘Worst Case Scenario’, the album’s 11 tracks become their own mantras. Against a blanketing of scuzzy indie pop and ethereal alt-Americana, these sacred phrases are born.

Much of the album finds Pruitt exploring the complexities of her past and her relationships with others, as well as with herself. On the hushed but hopeful ‘Blood Related', she reflects on familial ties, rehashing her upbringing to salve decades-old scars. On ‘Naive Again’ and ‘Jealous of the Boys’, she dives even deeper into her adolescence, dissecting becoming and belonging, and what both truly mean to her now. With ‘White Lies, White Jesus And You’, the musician goes even further, upending a narrative of shame to reclaim her spirituality. Through her introspections, she unearths the parts of herself longing to be embraced.

Mantras feels far removed from the casual listen. While the album boasts its share of breezy and undemanding melodies, it’s ultimately a complex and vulnerable release, so personal to Pruitt and yet universal to us all. You just might have to be in the right headspace, poised to take that bold look inward, to get out of it what the artist has so lovingly put in. Maybe then, her mantras will become your own.

8/10

Katie Pruitt’s 2024 project, Mantras, is available April 5 via Rounder Records.

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