'A More Enjoyable Way To Feel Anger': Kita Alexander Is Finding Acceptance Through 'RAGE'

Kita Alexander

There’s something quietly disarming about talking to Kita Alexander.

In the lead up to the release of her sophomore album, RAGE, the 30 year old Brisbane singer-songwriter is completely at ease: thoughtful, self-aware and honest. It’s a striking contrast to the album’s title, which suggests something explosive.

Instead, RAGE unfolds with soft edges and warm textures, a collection of songs that feel deeply considered and lived-in.

It’s also Alexander’s strongest work to date. Part of what makes RAGE feel so compelling is the sense that Alexander is no longer trying to outrun difficult emotions. Pop music has often treated anger as something loud and immediate, expressed through dramatic production or sharp lyrical confrontation.

Alexander takes a different approach. Over the record, the rage explored is rarely explosive. Instead, it appears as something quieter and gradual- resentment that lingers, frustration that builds slowly over time or the exhaustion that comes from constantly trying to hold everything together.

RAGE feels warm, spacious, and intimate. It’s got lovely acoustic textures, gentle melodies, and understated production choices, allowing the songwriting to remain at the forefront of every track.

Where 2024’s Young In Love delivered a polished pop sound with catchy hooks, RAGE feels deeply personal and the songs breathe a little differently. They feel less concerned with chasing the perfect pop high and more interested in sitting with uncomfortable emotions and finding beauty within them.

The record isn’t a concept album in the traditional sense, but one feeling threads its way through every song. “Rage is the theme,” Alexander explains. “The album and my conscious awakening to the emotion happened simultaneously and symbiotically.

“Without the album, I wouldn’t have come to terms with my rage and without my rage, the album wouldn’t exist.”

Instead of presenting anger as something destructive, RAGE fully reframes it. Over the record, Alexander explores what happens when difficult emotions are acknowledged rather than being suppressed.

“I want people to see, feel and hear another way for rage and anger to exist in their life,” she notes. “The juxtaposition of the common preconceptions around the word rage and the actual body of work, which is soft colours, sounds and raw vocals can give people a calmer, more enjoyable way to feel anger.”

And this juxtaposition is exactly where the album finds its wings. Its not jarring or unnatural, it makes complete sense and works in the context of the record. “Two things can exist together in a fiery hot emotion of rage and a beautiful grounded feeling of trusting the process”, Alexander explains beautifully.

We see this balance immediately on the opening track The Good House, where she sings, “I’m patching up the holes, pretending it ain’t bad/I’m a good house on a shitty street.” It’s a line that feels resonant when considered alongside her experiences as both an artist and a mother.

For years, Alexander has been navigating two identities simultaneously: raising children while building a career in music. The realities of motherhood – the joy, pressure, exhaustion, occasional moments of rage and overwhelming amounts of love – quietly inform much of the album’s emotional landscape. There is no attempt to present herself as perfect.

Rather, RAGE finds strength in acknowledging the cracks and learning to coexist with them.

Motherhood is not an explicit subject on the record, but it hangs subtly over it. The experience of caring for others inevitably changes the way a person understands themselves, exposing emotions that might otherwise stay hidden.

Alexander’s own reflections on rage feel particularly interesting in this context because they challenge the expectation that mothers should always be patient, nurturing and emotionally composed. Instead, she gives that complexity some space.

The album recognises fully that love and frustration can exist side by side, and acknowledging difficult emotions does not diminish the strength of love beneath them.

The same openness extends to the way that Alexander approaches her songwriting. Tracks like Metal Detector Man, Sentimental Letter, and Miss Australia seem intensely personal without ever feeling over-explained. Alexander admits that she’s reached a point in her creative journey where she’s comfortable allowing listeners to find their own meaning within her work.

“This idea of people digging into songs and trying to uncover their full meaning used to scare me,” she admits, “but recently I’ve come to realise that that is the point. The listener and consumer of the art gets to choose what they do with the song… When I give too much information, I feel like I’m ripping people off of their personal experience with how they perceive the song.

“Recently, I’ve found this really good place where I can share a top layer meaning of my songs, but leave enough room for everyone to do with it what they please.”

This philosophy, in a way, mirrors the album itself. There is a confidence to that approach, which feels indicative of where Alexander is in her career right now. After years of releasing music and building a loyal audience, she’s realised and accepted that the interpretation of her music is out of her control. In its place is a growing trust in both her audience and her own instincts.

RAGE is vulnerable, but never indulgent. Alexander offers enough of herself to draw listeners in, but leaves enough space for them to see their own experiences reflected back.

This also makes the listening experience more rewarding, encouraging listeners to return to the songs and discover a new meaning depending on where they’re at in their own lives.

It’s a reminder that sometimes, the most powerful songwriting comes from asking questions rather than providing answers. The best moments on RAGE emerge from this ambiguity, and the restraint to not over-explain herself feels refreshing.

There’s also a similar sense of restraint and self-acceptance in her vocal delivery on the album, too. For the first time, Alexander set out to make a conscious decision not to chase notes that fall outside her natural range.

After all, RAGE is all about becoming comfortable with who you already are.

“I wanted to respect my natural singing voice placement of being an alto, and not try to reach high notes that I’ve never normally sung day to day,” she explains. “In the middle of promoting this album and singing these songs, I’m looking back at my past self and I feel so grateful for the decision I had to graciously accept my voice and its capabilities.

“I now get to sing the songs confidently, knowing that they are made exactly for me and not someone I’m trying to be.”

This sentiment bleeds into the theme of the record too, and is most apparent on Sunday Girl, the closing track and dreamiest moment on the record. The song talks about being the most carefree, light version of herself – a Sunday Girl, untethered from responsibility.

It’s definitely a standout for more reasons than one – it’s the only song that is totally happy and blissful, making it fitting for the very last track on an album about rage. The Sunday Girl character exists somewhere between reality and aspiration – it’s the version of herself that she wishes she could always be, even if life rarely allows it.

“Chaos is usually where I find my inspiration,” she explains.” Being able to notice that in the slower moments there are lyrics to be found is new for me and I love it.

“I don’t always have to be the tortured artist… even though Sunday Girl has a bit of bitter resentment and frustration knowing that I can’t always live in that carefree magical state of being.”

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of RAGE is the way it transforms a deeply personal journey into something that feels communal. These songs were written from Alexander’s own emotional awakening, but the album isn’t exclusively inward-looking. There’s comfort in hearing someone articulate feelings that are often difficult to express, particularly when presented without judgement or shame.

By the time the record concludes, the title begins to take on a slightly different meaning. Rage is no longer positioned as a problem to be solved or an emotion waiting to be controlled.

It becomes part of a larger emotional landscape, including vulnerability, tenderness, gratitude and self-discovery. That shift in perspective, which comes to a head on Sunday Girl, is what gives this record a lasting impact.

Beneath its title, you’ll find a record that doesn’t seek easy answers or dramatic resolutions. Instead, it embraces contradiction – anger and peace, chaos and calm, growth and acceptance.

For an album born from rage, it’s remarkably graceful.

Kita Alexander’s RAGE is out now.

This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body