UT Kirin’s full length LP Wry Side of Paradise is unique in the sense that it describes in intimate, flurried detail exactly what it feels like to experience college (and California) for the first time. The concept album uses each song to describe a semester of the songwriter’s undergraduate career at UC Berkeley, taking the listener on a whirlwind journey that covers every experience from first love to loss of innocence to intellectual fulfillment, and everything in between. The album begins with the fast-paced and frenzied “General Chemistry” (streaming below) that opens the album up with the lines “I spent 17 years in a coma in New Jersey / and I went to high school where few people liked me / got taller, still skinny, California, no kidding / I now throw computers through windows for a living.” It is safe to say the album comes full circle when it ends on the more controlled, and somber lines “I’ll always remember the joy of not knowing / and the thrill of it all out before me / blink four times, it’s over” on the track “I Read Murakami.” This is an album to be enjoyed by anyone that felt they could’ve fallen apart in college, but somehow survived. UT Kirin plays various live shows around the Bay Area, so keep your eyes peeled. – Lilly Milman
