Underdressed at the Symphony is a fitting title for an album that finds
Faye Webster slowly trading her initial country-rock inclinations for a sumptuous chamber pop: underneath her sophisticated trappings, she remains a slacker whose presence isn't ostentatious but is certainly felt. Not so much a shift in direction as an idiosyncratic evolution from the soft-focus shimmer of
I Know I'm Funny Haha, the 2021 album that gained enough buzz to cross the radar of former President
Barack Obama (he chose "Better Distractions" as one of his picks to click for 2020),
Underdressed at the Symphony intensifies the lush, languid undertones lurking within her music. Working with her regular co-producer
Drew Vandenberg,
Webster emphasizes presentation and execution over composition or construction, letting her backing band and tight group of collaborators breathe along with her sighing melodies. Her quivering, tentative voice cuts against the opulence of the arrangements, particularly when it's run through an Auto-Tune that accentuates her gangly, slightly cynical sensitivity. Those slight traces of 21st century modernism -- brought to the forefront on the aggressively chipper "He Loves Me Yeah!" and "Lego Ring," which features
Webster's old middle school friend
Lil Yachty --can feel like a signifier, a way to make clear that she's not a musician who indulges in the smooth seduction of nostalgia. Those understated but evident protestations are needed because the rest of
Underdressed at the Symphony could be mistaken for a deliberate evocation of classic rock -- specifically the hazy netherworld of the late '70s and early '80s, when pop was delivered with exquisite precision by studio pros.
Underdressed at the Symphony often can sound like 21st century yacht rock, particularly in how "Thinking About You" finds endless comfort in its trilling guitar and laid-back groove or how "But Not Kiss" billows forth on waves of steel guitar and piano. The appeal in this refurbished soft rock lies in the atmosphere and supple interplay, how the musicians twist melodic clichés without refuting their power, an execution that mirrors how
Webster writes songs that feel slightly off-center: she delivers subtle surprises without neglecting basic pop pleasures. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
