Taste Test: X. ARI splits in two with manic new single, ‘Yin Yang’

Welcome to Taste Test, a song/video review series of SubmitHub-only gemstones

Mental health is constantly being forced to walk a tightrope. You mount the single strand of braided nylon, leaving your life to fate’s clutches and a fear of heights. You never know how it’s going to go; you just perform like a circus monkey. Toronto pop wrangler X. ARI collapses from her routine and under her own mania, the pressure building inside her skull, and it spills over in gutting roars with her song “Yin Yang.” In blending genres as efficiently as she’s been known to do, she gives herself permission to push and play and pulsate as quickly or slowly as her heart rate. “I’m a wicked work-in-progress / Hunting for my freedom,” she grits her teeth, spewing and squeezing out every ounce of heart she can muster. The give and take of her bipolar disorder shadows her movements across the rope, which is always nearing a complete snap, the ground feeling at times hundreds of miles away and right under her nose. It’s a devastating existence, but music is and can be a therapeutic agent we so desperately desire.

“Yin Yang” is just the latest in a series of singles spotlighting mental health and the tireless struggle.

Listen below:

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