On Atlanta Millionaires Club, the omnipresence of pedal steel eschews bluegrass trappings, flexible under Faye Webster’s genre-bending direction. Webster didn’t set out to make her new album sound like any artist in particular – in fact, she says the recording process was the opposite, trying to avoid sounding like any contemporaries – but she cites Aaliyah as her main musical inspiration for how she uses sound.
Pulling from a familial lineage of folk storytelling and time spent in Atlanta’s hip-hop scene, Webster’s work is a study of duality, weaving through her own introversion and heartbreak; it’s an idiosyncratic sadness punctuated by fleeting observations and an unexpected, sly sense of humour.
Across Atlanta Millionaires Club, Webster’s feather-light vocals unfurl like a sigh, her voice and slinking hues of sleepy R&B acting as sonic through-lines on an album stitched together by intimate songwriting about lonesomeness despite Webster’s connection to a larger community. Opener Room Temperature recounts Webster’s day-to-day life, a study of introversion, of trying to be at peace with being alone. A rattling bass line and the fleeting twang of pedal steel simmer beneath her wispy vocals, a wondering refrain: “I should get out more.”
Tracklist:
1. Room Temperature
2. Right Side of My Neck
3. Hurts Me Too
4. Pigeon
5. Jonny
6. Kingston
7. Come to Atlanta
8. What Used to Be Mine
9. Flowers (feat. Father)
10. Jonny (Reprise)
