Faye Webster - Underdressed At The Symphony
Faye Webster - Underdressed At The Symphony
I Know I’m Funny haha was one of my favourite albums of its year. A true pandemic artefact that captured the experience of some couples during lockdown. The enforced domesticity and intimacy evolving into a blissfully anxious codependency. A deepening of love born out of a situation beyond anyone’s control.
Unfortunately, Underdressed At The Symphony is a break-up album.
Her previous record stuck pretty strictly to its chosen recipe of country-flecked indie folk pop bolstered by classic R&B arrangements. There was little in the way of experimentation outside of Faye Webster’s off-kilter lyricism and waifish vocals. It was feel-good, it was comfy.
But it was a bit of an outlier in her catalogue. Underdressed At The Symphony sees her returning to experimentation, to discomfort. Part of that experimentation includes a greater influence of hip-hop, which reaches its pinnacle in the Lil Yachty feature on Lego Ring. There’s also a bit more jazz influence.
Not this record is all that different. It’s got the same wonderful arrangements, and the same bittersweet melodies. But it’s more stripped down, more repetitious in its lyrics whereas I Know I’m Funny haha was full of rambling stream of consciousness. Underdressed At The Symphony sounds like a person who’s become lost after thinking she’d been found.
Overall, I don’t think anything could top her last record for me. But it’s still a strong offering. Have a listen.
Streaming below via Bandcamp.
Highlights: But Not Kiss • Wanna Quit All The Time • He Loves Me Yeah!
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