Atlanta-based artist Faye Webster first gained fame among her adolescent listeners in 2019 with the release of the playfully brilliant “Atlanta Millionaires Club.” Since then, she has experienced an influx of new fans and attention from new releases, including “Kingston,” “Right Side of My Neck,” “In a Good Way” and most recently, “I Know You.” Webster’s albums tend to have a melancholic backbone, which is always displayed raw in the flesh of each song she chooses to show the world. Yet, in her new album released on Friday, March 1, “Underdressed at the Symphony,” fans see she’s added complexity to her relationship between love and play by navigating the unmapped spaces between her comfort and vigilance.
The title of Webster’s new album is inspired by her occasional compulsion to lose herself amongst concertgoers at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Atlanta Symphony Hall is just a short skip from her midtown home, and Webster has expressed her vulnerability in multiple interviews when it comes to the orchestra. “Underdressed at the Symphony” pertains to how this orchestra was the one place where she could be raw and exposed without any concerns of societal pressure. Craving company and distraction, Webster often went to the symphony as a form of cathartic release.
Clocking in at a mere 36 minutes, “Underdressed at the Symphony ” leaves its listeners intertwined in Webster’s endearing enigma– despite it only consisting of 10 tracks. The album reveals Webster’s raw experimentation and playfulness alongside her quavering use of vocative chamber folk.
Starting the album strong with “Thinking About You,” she sings, “I’m asleep in the moment when you’re holding my head / but I want to remember I’ll sleep when I’m dead.” Turning her breakup into an ironic play on morality, she details the solitary moments where her brain conflicts with itself, allowing unhurried insight to come naturally. Her voice lilts and fades over an expertly placed bass, which creates a soothing melody over a soft piano twinkle. Her voice is beautifully nourished by an orchestra in its synergistic entirety.
My personal favorite track on this album is what I believe can only be described as an “anti-love song.” The lush, slow burner “But Not Kiss” is an emotive and breathtaking ballad. Webster writes, “I want to see you in my dreams– but then forget.” A gust of raw tenderness is swiped across our faces, and we have no choice but to indulge in Webster’s dynamic waves of melancholy. She proves here that she is not a woman misplaced amongst opulent audience members at a symphony; rather, she is the symphony.
“Wanna Quit All the Time” is a song very similar to what you’d expect to see on her 2019 album “Atlanta Millionaire Club,” with its use of a vocoder to synthesize her usual idiosyncratic chords and melodies. The song exudes spooky harmonies and synths, which arrive without sacrificing the spacious quality of Webster’s prior music, allowing each lyric to bubble to the surface with added layers of complexity.
Moving on to the only song on this album with a feature, Lil Yachty’s appearance on “Lego Ring” brings an unexpected shift to the album experience. Though Webster is a timid yet emotive and lighthearted performer, she attempts to blend unconventionally with Yatchy, who is mainly rap/hip-hop focused. The song floats between fuzzy alternatives and dreamy hip-hop and fails to have a clear stream of consciousness for its listener. The song seems to have an unbalanced rhythm and incongruous synths and leaves the artists’ individual audiences slightly disappointed and aching for more.
Racing the last few songs of this album, “Lifetime” stretches the repetition of a single phrase, “in a lifetime,” into a jazz-like trance. Though a beautiful song, Webster says what she needs to say and nothing more, leaving listeners slightly mystified. The song “Underdressed at the Symphony ” is also a beautiful, picturesque song of vulnerability. Webster doesn’t want your sympathy. She just wants you to feel along with her, and that aspect of Webster becomes clear in her closing songs.
With “Underdressed at the Symphony,” Webster is not looking to self-actualize, nor is she on a healing journey. Instead, she’s simply choosing to exist. Webster documents heartbreak and ridiculous moments right next to each other until they start to blur, becoming real enough for us all to feel.
At its core, Webster’s poetic account of her inner struggles with confusion, doubt and the grief that aligns with heartbreak is all captured in this album. Webster’s angelic voice rings of sheer femininity throughout “Underdressed at the Symphony,” and listeners are taken on a gloomy ride with a soft and accepting current.
Overall Rating: 4/5