Faye Webster reckons she should get out more. She tells us so in those exact words on the opening song ‘Room Temperature’, on her new album ‘Atlanta Millionaires Club’. “I was sitting here last year, the same time ago / Still wearing the same thing, these aren’t even my clothes,” the Georgia native croons, staying put with her home comforts as she whispers the song title repeatedly as the song phases out.
Her hometown of Atlanta made her, so it’s unsurprising that she’s settled into a cushy routine. She adores the cities’ baseball team, the Atlanta Braves, and is frequently sporting jerseys for the team while catching their mid-afternoon games. She also grew up in the dorm house in Midtown that her Dad frequented as a student in decades past. Even more so, she went to school with one of the city’s most recent breakout hip-hop stars in Lil Yachty, and teamed up with rapper Father and his influential label, Awful Records, for early releases. Webster has got it all set up – why would you need to get out more?
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On slinky R&B cut ‘Come To Atlanta’, the city is at the forefront, as she implores her lover to come back to where she is right now. It’s just one of endless touching moments on an album that’s sweeter than an iced tea on a sweltering afternoon. Take ‘Pigeon’, based around the time she allegedly sent a bird with a note all the way to her partner in Australia, which captures the intimate moments of a very long-distant relationship: “I used to make my bed / But now I see no point in it / He’s awake the whole time that I’m asleep / Maybe that’s why I don’t see him in my dreams”. Similarly, ‘Right Side Of My Neck’ is devastating in so few words, as she whispers about how her neck “still smells like you” as pedal-steel guitar and twinkling pianos make for a folk-pop delight.
Webster’s evolution from her self-titled record is a delight to witness. The songs are more direct and lyrically she’s become a remarkable observer of the little things that make us tick. If this what being a homebird has made her, we hope she never flies the nest.