Faye Webster is only 21 but the Atlanta-based singer sings like she's seen a lifetime of hurt. Her new record, Atlanta Millionaires Club, out on Friday via Secretly Canadian, is the sort of thing that is shockingly good, and it is the kind of release that announces the presence of a major talent. The album features music that reveals how how easily Faye can assimilate forms in order to create something that feels both new and familiar at the same time.
The lanky "Flowers (feat. Father)" is pure rhythm-and-blues, while the affecting "Jonny" is very much like the kind of balladry Rickie Lee Jones pursued on her earliest records. Elsewhere, "Hurts Me Too" is all twang-y yearning, while the peppier "Right Side of My Neck" is slow-burn swing, breathy and carefree at the same time. While "What Used To Be" is passable country-honk, the jazzier "Come to Atlanta" is more interesting still, flashes of Laura Nyro and Joni Mitchell seen here as Webster straddles a few genres successfully. This is lush music but Webster never makes it feel precious or overwrought. Instead, she holds back just enough to render these tunes the sort of thing that, in other hands, would be more dramatic.
Atlanta Millionaires Club is a short, concise, emotionally-gripping record. It's the sort of thing that's difficult to describe but what Webster's doing here works for the most part. On paper this might seem like an ambitious undertaking for a singer so young, who couldn't possibly have seen the kind of drama necessary to carry these songs successfully, but Faye pulls it off easily.
Atlanta Millionaires Club is out on Friday via Secretly Canadian.
More details on Faye Webster via her official website, or her official Facebook page.
[Photo: Eat Humans]