Yes, the screenshot above these words is from the episode of “Sponegbob” when he comes down with the suds. Sponegbob loves work, but when he has the suds, his energy is drained, and he can’t find the will to go. He sits around. Barely able to talk, though normally words flow out uncontrollably. Every time he tries to power through the sudden illness, something out of his control stops him and sets him back another step. Usually, he ends back up on that same couch. Faye Webster’s Atlanta Millionaires Club is an album that feels like having the suds. And listen, yes I know, this album is like two months old, but fuck the weekly music cycle. I throw on Atlanta Millionaires Club nearly every day—not because I feel like she does at this very moment, but because I find myself taken back by Faye Webster putting words to feelings I’ve never been able to comprehend.
“Room Temperature” :/
Hawaii is the go-to setting for somber, on the nose dramedies like Forgetting Sarah Marshall or The Descendants. I suppose the juxtaposition of being in some sort of paradise and still on your sad boy shit is just simple storytelling. The second that opening pedal steel guitar hits on “Room Temperature,” you kind of get why Jason Segel is still fucking up even though Mila Kunis and Kristen Bell are both in love with him. Faye’s soft voice is both folky and whispery SZA-core R&B, which heightens the dramatic impact of her first two lines: “Looks like I’ve been crying again, over the same thing,” and “I wonder if anyone has ever cried for me,” she says in a way that’s hard for her to even get these words out. Heartbreak is shitty, but making someone feel like that, right there, is even worse. That sense of knowing you’re going to break someone’s heart and doing it anyway. Then, that odd and guilty satisfaction about the fact that someone could even care about you that much.
“Right Side of My Neck” :(
On “Right Side of My Neck,” Faye reminisces on the small moments of a relationship that probably feel insignificant in the moment, but when it’s over it’s all you can think about. Like that restaurant that had the really good chipotle mayo or that little smirk on their face when they opened the door and saw it was you. Damn, Faye, this was supposed to be a summer of Key! So Emotional energy, not this.
“Flowers” [ft. Father] :)
I like to think about the fact that Awful Records is the same Atlanta collective that birthed both the melancholy music of Faye and master linguist Playboi Carti. “Flowers” is one of the few tracks on the album that is more in the traditional R&B lane and also one of the few that doesn’t feel completely lost in the mood. Her world is ending, but there’s also a ship waiting to take her to a new planet. And really, it could be like that episode of “The Twilight Zone” where that new planet is planning to serve you as a meal. But, fuck, that’s love I guess.
hmu if u wanna talk about the faye webster album i love talkin about it ! email: alphonsepierre0@gmail.com or the tweets
thanks Dani Blum for making sure i do words right :)