Album review: Faye Webster expands sound, reflects on daily life in ‘Underdressed at the Symphony’

Anna Pichler
Tue, 05 Mar 2024 01:30:38 +0000
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Singer Faye Webster, the second act of the Here and There Festival: Courtney Barnett, Snail Mail, Faye Webster, Hana Vu at Beak and Skiff Aug. 14, 2022. Credit: Dennis Nett (via TNS)

Spanning over a decade, Faye Webster’s discography seems like a semi-veiled diary. Her lyrics — sardonic and stinging with repressed emotion — often focus on the little things in life, from her dog to the dreams she forgets upon waking.?

Released Friday, Webster’s fifth studio album “Underdressed at the Symphony” is a largely guarded entry into her lyrical diary, expanding upon her distinctive musical blend of bedroom pop warmth, rock riffs, R&B ambience and orchestral elevations.?

The album starts strong with “Thinking About You” and its irresistible groove, an inviting precursor to Webster’s indistinguishably honeyed voice.?

The relaxed yet dazzling beat, supplemented by twinkling xylophonic notes, transports listeners to Webster’s daydream of falling asleep as soon as a lover holds her head, uncharacteristically trusting their assurance that “it’ll work out this time.” The hypnotic repetition of the track’s title in the chorus and outro reflects the pure, heady bliss of “thinking about” a beloved.

The second track and lead single, titled “But Not Kiss,” is the album’s sharpest and one of its strongest. Lyrically, it documents the push and pull between shyly hopeful love and paralyzing hesitation.?

Webster’s voice stretches to a near-breaking point as she dreamily deems her relationship “meant to be,” violently clashing with her hasty contradiction, “but not yet.” The music, too, reflects Webster’s paradoxical feelings — the dreamy steel guitar and discordant, jarring piano riff make for a forceful and compelling composition.

The lyrical and musical bite of “But Not Kiss” should have appeared more frequently throughout the album. While many listeners — including myself — can relate to Webster’s gripes of constantly feeling “bored and…never satisfied” (“eBay Purchase History”) and wanting to “quit all the time,” (“Wanna Quit All the Time”) the plain-stated complaints become a bit tired.?

And while “He Loves Me Yeah!” is a refreshingly upbeat inclusion featuring distorted guitar and bright piano, the lyrics are desperately simple.?

Yes, Webster’s lyricism generally is understated, but at their strongest, her mundane musings hint at more complex, unspoken thoughts and feelings. I struggled to find depth or even charm in the repetition of, “My baby loves me, yeah, he loves me, yeah/I think we’re perfect, yeah, we’re perfect, yeah.”

That being said, lyrics need not always be flooring for enjoyable listening. Perhaps best exemplifying this idea is “Lego Ring,” a collaboration with rapper Lil Yachty.?

Indeed, the track’s repetitive lyrics — focused on wanting “a Lego ring” — are not Webster’s most remarkable. However, considering her subdued lyricism, maybe this Lego ring that she “[wants] to hurt [her] finger” is deeper than just a desired toy; perhaps it metaphorically represents a passionate yet problematic romance.?

Lyrics aside, the heavy background guitar drone, crisp piano notes and psychedelic chorus breakdown provide this playful track with stimulating musical buoys. Additionally, Yachty’s distorted backing vocals complement Webster’s and aid in melting the verse’s harsh instrumentals into the groovy chorus.?

Singer Faye Webster, the second act of the Here and There Festival: Courtney Barnett, Snail Mail, Faye Webster, Hana Vu at Beak and Skiff Aug. 14, 2022. Credit: Dennis Nett (via TNS)

The rapper’s lighthearted outro — featuring contagiously exuberant, if not profound, lyrics like, “Me and you the dream team, always together like string beans” — suits the song’s whimsical, collaborative spirit.

The next track, titled “Feeling Good Today,” sees Webster trying her best to find something to feel good about in the day to day: She “ate before noon,” which is “pretty good for [her],” and it’s alright if “bugs come in” because she’s “got an exterminator.”?

Although a relaxed guitar rhythm maintains a lighthearted tone, this is no rapturous exaltation of daily life’s small victories. In classic Webster fashion, her delivery of all too relatable lyrics such as “[buying] something dumb” after getting paid and “[finding] a new hobby just to ditch it” is markedly blasé.?

Still, while some listeners might find her Vocoder-altered vocals to be overdone, I appreciate her experimentation and find that it plays into her lyrics’ subtle blur of humor and masked melancholy.

Webster slows down on “Lifetime.” Guided by a slow, R&B-esque beat, twinkling piano and sublime strings, she dreamily reflects upon a lover whom she can’t imagine having lived without in her “lifetime.”?

Although the lyrics aren’t incredibly striking, her ability to “understand” her lover “verbatim” without even speaking is touching. Her gratitude for the lover who occupies “every minute” of her life flows into every weightless repetition of the chorus, a focused meditation on love.

On the closing track, titled “Tttttime,” Webster predicts that “in half an hour, [she’ll] be bored,” yet again. It’s a decent track, but the album would have ended on a more satisfying note with the stunning penultimate title track.

As a song, “Underdressed at the Symphony” is a swirl of psychedelic guitar, punchy chords, steady drumbeat and touches of piano, all of which seamlessly pull listeners into Webster’s rumination on an ex-lover.?

Her lyrics are among the album’s most personal and heartrending. Contrasting vague laments that characterize some of the album’s weaker tracks, her vivid recollections of an ex’s uninformed mother inviting her over and “crying to songs [they] put [her] on” while “underdressed at the symphony” are personal enough to truly pack a punch.?

The lush string arrangement following her reminiscence of the symphony is a treat and arguably the album’s best example of playful experimentation.?

It’s the moments like these — when Webster strikes a balance between the personal and the universal, the experimental and the tasteful — that flaunt her artistic capability.?

Although “Underdressed at the Symphony” is not consistently wowing, the album as a whole at least makes for pleasant background music. Considering her intriguing experimentation and lyrical potential, I’ll be sure to continue tuning into Webster’s everyday misadventures and daydreams.

Rating: 3.5/5