Whereas Veronica Swift's 2019 Mack Avenue Records debut, Confessions, contained songs that played out like pages from her personal diary, on the captivating follow-up, This Bitter Earth, she flips by crafting an ingenious song cycle that tackles sexism ("How Lovely to Be a Woman"), domestic abuse ("He Hit Me"), environmental issues, racism, xenophobia ("You Have To Be Carefully Taught"), and the dangers of fake news ("The Sports Page"). The singer-songwriter gathered material that covers multiple genres, including jazz, American musicals, and contemporary indie-rock fortifying her position as a leading force in genre-bending song presentation.