Faye Webster "I Know I'm Funny haha" (2021)

I Know I'm Funny haha

release date: Jun. 25, 2021

format: digital (11 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,72]

producer: Drew Vandenberg, Faye Webster

label: Secretly Canadian - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "Better Distractions" - 3. "I Know I'm Funny haha" - 4. "In a Good Way" - 5. "Kind Of" - 6. "Cheers" - 9. "A Dream With a Baseball Player" - 10. "Overslept" (feat. Mei Ehara)

4th studio album from Faye Webster released two years after what is conceived as her breakthrough album Atlanta Millionaires Club. An unforseen aid has nursed the new album to international attention when ex-president Barrack Obama's Spotify playlist revealed it included the song "Better Distractions".

Webster continue on the same path of alt. country, indie folk mixed with elements from r&b and hip hop. At times it comes close to lounge and jazz pop, and then it also reach out to a stronger hip hop-influence but it mainly stays on a narrow stylistic space filled with lap steel, bass and jazz percussion together with Webster's gentle melancholia keeping everything on the same road. Compared to her 2019 album, the new album comes out as lesser challenging but also as a tighter release.

The album has been met by positive reviews and it has landed two US Billboard top 10 positions with a position as number #10 on the Americana / Folk chart list and a 9th spot on the Heatseekers Album list, and the album also ended as number #11 on Pitchfork's 2021 year-end-list.

Webster is definitely an artist to look out for, and with I Know I'm Funny haha, she has made her most coherent and so far most fascinating album.

Recommended.

[ 😶allmusic.com 3 / 5, 👍Under the Radar 7,5 / 10, NME 4 / 5, Pitchfork 8,4 / 10, Uncut 4,5 / 5 stars ]

George Harrison "My Sweet Lord" (1970) (single)

My Sweet Lord, 7'' single

release date: Nov. 23, 1970

format: vinyl (F 2995)

[single rate: 4 / 5] [4,08]

producer: George Harrison & Phil Spector

label: Apple Records - nationality: England, UK

Tracklist: A) "My Sweet Lord" (4,5 / 5) - - B) "Isn't It a Pity"

1st single release by George Harrison taken from his solo album debut All Things Must Pass (Nov. 27, 1970). The single was released in the US as a double A-side single and international issues as regular two-sided 7'' singles.

This song is likely to be Harrison's best loved single - being highly valued as a stand-out work from his first album while creating a clash with his mangement as he didn't want to issue any singles from his album. Perhaps, just as importantly, the single is highly treasured because the single mix of the song differs from that found on the album.

During the Winter of 1970/'71, the release became an international number #1 single-hit, and the first to top the singles charts by any of the four ex-Beatles members. The song itself must have been the best possible promotion for the critical acclaim and commercial success of his double album, although, Harrison probably still didn't just see it as a sales stunt.

The copy I own is a first issue pressing from Denmark, which also played a central role as Harrison appears to have written and composed the song while on tour in Copenhagen, Dec. '69.

Back in the 70s I did enjoy this very song but somehow I also felt that I should appreciate it more 'cause I wasn't a huge fan. I think, I found it a bit too melancholic and repetitive - both traits are perhaps the reason I have come to treasure it much more as an adult. Harrison makes it simple and he carries much of a recognisable style from The Beatles without sounding like a tune coming from his former band. The song is both a simple one lyrically and with its bold chorus and yet musically, it's a complex compound of styles. There's a fine balance of psychedelic rock - here it's a conglomerate of folk rock, singer / songwriter, baroque pop, and pop / rock, and you can't really tell which style is the dominant one. It's tempting to stay with notion of 'psychedelic' but it seems too simplistic. All Things Must Pass is an iconic masterpiece, and "My Sweet Lord" is there as a highlight, to stress the fact that Harrison possessed much more than he was given a chance to lay open while being part of a band with two leaders. As much as I enjoy the various periods by The Fab Four, I just feel a more warm-hearted appreciation for Harrison's solo career, which I consider generally underappreciated.