This Is Not a Life (2021)

This Is Not a Life (2021) Cover Art

Preceding Album: Wasted Potential (2019-2020)

Following Album: A Modern Man (2022-2023)

Table of Contents

This Is Not a Life (2021)

This Is Not a Life is Kirby Sibiski’s second album, written and recorded between 2021 and 2022. Part of the Reform, Anxious trilogy, the project followed the creative and emotional fallout of Wasted Potential (2019-2020). First conceived during the late stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, the album captures a moment of reemergence into the social world — most notably through Kirby’s relationship with Maya.

Originally intended to conclude with “The Holy Alliance,” the LP was later expanded to include two additional tracks — “Retroactive” and “White Feathers Look Brown.” The album produced two singles: “Lucky” and “Either/Or.”

Kirby has described the lyrics as being heavily influenced by surrealism and his first encounters with Freud, Lacan, and psychoanalysis. Critics have referred to it as his most deliberately academic work, blending psychological introspection with abstract symbolism.

Tracklist

  1. Castration II
  2. Lucky
  3. Transgression
  4. The Back Room
  5. Dogs In Crates
  6. Either/Or
  7. Death to Deliberation
  8. The Holy Alliance
  9. Retroactive
  10. White Feathers Look Brown

Singles

TitleRelease Date
“Lucky”August 6, 2021
“Either/Or”August 15, 2021

Album Art

The cover art juxtaposes René Magritte’s The Treachery of Images with Kazimir Malevich’s Black Square, reflecting the album’s central tension between language, perception, and meaning.

See Also