I Know I’m Funny Haha

Sounds Good!

Faye Webster is a musician from Atlanta, Georgia. Overnight she released her fourth album, it’s called I Know I’m Funny Haha. She self-released her debut, aged 16, and was instantly compared to other wise-beyond-their-years talents – perhaps most obviously Laura Marling. Someone referenced Jackson Browne, and fair enough – he wrote These Days when he was 16. Kate Bush might have been mentioned too, since she wrote some great songs as a teen, even released two albums before she was 20.

Webster’s new album is her all grown up. (She’s in her early 20s still). All grown up in the sense that any irony is gone – previous albums had killer one-liners, sarcastic ennui, bored detachment. It was wonderful, by the way. But you know, you have to move on. That’s what she’s done her. Still writing great songs – still singing the heck out of them. A crack session band behind her, similar production vibe/feel to her previous record. And some great lines still. If you’re already familiar with her there’s nothing at all that should turn you off. But if this is your introduction: Welcome. There’s so much to love about the way Faye Webster writes and sends a song.

I liked the first two albums but really fell for her sound with 2019’s Atlanta Millionaire’s Club. (You can click that link to read my full review). I suggested she made songs that would sound like Burt Bacharach writing and arranging for the “Netflix and chill” generation. I said she was funny, but also that she beautifully conveyed heartbreak. In that sense her voice, her songs, her style – and the playing and arrangements –  had traces of both Natalie Prass and the Bic Runga of Birds. (I LOVE Bic Runga’s album Birds. I love Natalie Prass’ 2015 self-titled debut and her 2018 follow-up, The Future and The Past).

Music journalism is dead now. It died a while ago – but no one told it. We all just carried on with our lives, able to stream albums in a single bound. Able to hear the music as soon as it ‘drops’. So I don’t even need to explain things – I can just share with you a link to Webster’s new album, maybe some vids for the singles too. And I will. Of course.

And I have.

And I shall continue to do so for a bit…

Even better, I can also remind you of the wonder of Bic’s album Birds by just embedding a copy of it for you to check in on.

And I can share Prass’ albums.  

Both of them superb.

And you’ll either know them already and move past them. Or you’ll get to check them out if you want.

This is efficient.

Where once I’d have the album a month before you and could say all sorts of things about it now I’m told about it a day before it ‘drops’ and asked nicely in emails to “please show some love”, to “support”, to “plan some coverage” – and if I don’t reply to the email warmly and enthusiastically and preferably within 90-120 seconds someone will be “circling back” to “loop in again” on what’s happening. They will remind me that this is “not to be missed” and to “make sure you don’t sleep on it” because it simply has to be the case that I “won’t want to miss this!”

There’s an obvious downside to all of this.

But sometimes you are up late at night wondering what to write – and an album comes along by someone you trust. And you listen to it and know straight away that it’s up there with the best of their work from a finite, so far perfectly formed catalogue. And that’s worth celebrating. Besides, in 2021’s language, creating four albums isLongevity. (Yesterday my son started a sentence with “Dad, remember, back in the day…” and he was referring to something that happened 6-8 weeks ago. And in his mind, he was not wrong to phrase it like that at all. And who knows, he’s probably right).  

Webster hides hints of hip-hop around the edges of her songs. She makes gorgeous pop songs that never feel like an excuse for product placement, nor do they exist for any other drama other than the detail in and of the song. She sells forlorn without any insincerity. She sells sincerity without any unctuousness. She makes music that you can like regardless of your age – there’s no worry about being unhip, nor any stress that one should be trying to be hip. (Using words like ‘hip’ outs you right away at any rate). You just get to like this music. Because it’s great.

And the chance to recommend something – purely for the joy of it being good – is a chance I’ll always take and forever crave.

So do check out the clips. And listen to the album. And check out her previous work if you’ve not heard it before. Or “circle back” to it by all means.

I mean this. I think she’s absolutely fantastic. I always feel like listening to Faye Webster. So today I’m very happy that there’s some new songs. Some of them – after three or four or five listens – already feel like old friends.

So check it all out. And let me know what you think. Whether it’s for you – or maybe it’s for someone in your life more than it’s for you. Share this on to them then by all means.

Webster is not only a self-taught musician that seemingly arrived fully formed, she’s a professional photographer and a part-time model as well. None of that factors into my enjoyment of her music – but I feel obliged to share this information in the Like & Subscribe world of today. And it speaks to the fact that she’s more than just a wee bit talented eh.

Cool-cool. Now if all of this is somehow not for you and you’ve just come here for the Friday playlist I make each week then you are also in luck. Big-time luck.

For, not only have I made you Volume 18 of A Little Something For The Weekend, I also happen to think it’s one of the very best playlists I’ve made. So I’d encourage you greatly to “please show some love”, to absolutely “plan some feedback/coverage”, to most definitely “support” it big time. Mark it in your calendar. This is the day. And then I can go all Sally Field on it. Since that’s the big pay-off these days for work done. Lol.

Have a great Friday. And happy weekend!