Back in 2019, when hugging wasn’t illegal and you could quite happily share an ice lolly with a stranger at an illegal rave and not have to worry about a deadly virus, we were graced with Atlanta singer/songwriter Faye Webster’s third LP Atlanta Millionaires Club. An album that drew me in instantly upon hearing the stand out track “Room Temperature”, the listless slide guitar exhaling the perfect counterpart to Webster’s wry lyrics and enchanting vocal performance. The combination of the lyrics soaked in irony and wry wit with the mixed instrumentation that brings in aspects of western country, alt-rock and R&B in a modern context.
The first two singles from this album came in hot last year, “In A Good Way” and “Better Distractions” led the charge for I Know I’m Funny haha, with the latter track making it onto Barack Obama’s top tracks of 2020. With these releases I knew we were in good hands, both tracks have the luscious instrumentation that hooked me in the beginning. Opening the album, “Better Distractions” eases you in with the steady pulse of the rhythm section under the cascading guitar chords. Webster’s vocal melodies climb up and down the track, with the main hook in the chorus a simple motif (“Will you, will you, be with me”) that peeks out of the track like someone checking you out over the bridge of their sunglasses at you as you enter a dive bar. A track that ditches the overarching irony and bitter wit for the untameable yearning that grabs you at the precipice of a new romantic relationship.
“In A Good Way” follows a similar feeling, with the hook being an admission that the romance fills you with such visceral feelings that all you can do is cry, in a good way though! Suitably capturing that overwhelming strike of lightning someone can bring into your life, with the band juxtaposing this with instrumentation that sounds like it was carved from a summer breeze and the glory of a sun rise over a new day. Throughout the album, most of the music evokes this hazy summer hue drawing you into a nice warm place that would warm the cold heart of anyone. A perfect companion to the long summer nights, but also the remedy for the dreary winter. But of course someone who lives on the West Coast of Scotland would say that you would get more vitamin D from this album than you would in the month of May in Glasgow.
Something that has become a signature of Webster’s sound has been the slide guitar, which features on the majority of the tracks on I Know I’m Funny. “Kind Of” is an excellent showcase of the excellent use and placement of the slide which acts as a sort of counterpart of Webster’s vocals. Often the main instrument that evokes the song’s emotion as it fades in and out with stunning melodic runs and riffs. With the explosive “Cheers” being at the core of the LP, we can see slightly more aggressive guitar tones. With this added grit, the track stands out amongst the others with a driving bass hook that holds the song together. The shimmering guitar leads over the top form a track that shows the extent of Webster’s abilities, something I would love to see more of in the future.
The humour in these songs is as subtle as the shifts in genre and moods throughout the album, with the soft ballads “Both All The Time” and “Sometimes” drawing a more poised lyrical point of view over comforting chords. With the former encapsulating the confusing and complex emotions that are instilled during a global pandemic:
“I don’t see the point of leaving my house/because I always come back.”
As much as this record is clouded with wry wit and humour, it also provides a look into Webster’s personal life and emotions. Driven by this mix of heady romance and bittersweet sadness, “A Dream With A Baseball Player” captures that unreachable feeling when you fall for someone unattainable. In this case for Webster, it is the childhood crush on Atlanta Braves outfielder Roald Acuna Jr. While it is a confession of fancying a celebrity the track also manages to encapsulate the dizzy feeling of being in love.
While I have no real qualms with this record, I would warn new listeners not to be expecting a record that puts everything out there for you to see. It is a calm, steady going album that holds the real goodness in its lyrics and overall sound. If you’re ever yearning for someone, a safe sunny place or a hard to describe mood then this might be your bag. It is a record that lives in the subtlety of its emotions, told with each gorgeous inflection of Webster’s voice and writing. She manages to create the sort of wry, ironic, half caught in love, half caught in the fallout of a gripping sadness that we all have felt but can never quite pinpoint. Almost like the mixed feelings you get after a night filled with good decisions and regrettable ones, tender but filled with memories that will no doubt stick with you.
8/10