Coachella Reviews Part 1 - Faye Webster, Kenya Grace, & Young Miko: Rapid Fire Reviews
As is so often the case I'm behind on albums I want to review this year and as we've done many times in the past on this blog, Music Festivals are a great way to knock some of those out. This week I will (hopefully) be dropping two review packs of some artists who spent the past two weekends performing at Coachella.
Underdressed at the Symphony - Faye Webster
After not loving Faye Webster during her breakthrough I really clicked with her 2021 album I know i'm funny haha in a way I wasn't expecting. I always had my suspicions that her gentle demeanor and witty songwriting would translate into yet another album that good and I think my expectations were lowered even more by lukewarm reactions to nearly every single she dropped in advance of the record. I can give credit to the first two singles though. Lead single But Not Kiss is easily the best song on the record and one of the only that could slot nicely into Faye's previous album. Its successor Lifetime is solid though its completely unnecessary wandering length and repetition hits at a massive problem with this album. Songs like the opener Thinking About You tend to drag long before their over. It's about 3 minutes of song stretched to nearly 7 which gets old a bit fast.
There's a far worse problem on the album though. In the past, you could expect even an underwhelming Faye release to be consistently pleasant to listen to throughout, even if it was understimulating for that relentless pleasantness. That isn't the case of Underdressed. While it gets off to that kind of start, as soon as Lego Ring hits the foundation falls. While collaborating with Lil Yachty is an objectively cute idea that could have worked, what results is a song that's deeply unpleasant in a way I'm not sure I've ever heard from Faye before. It's followed up by both Feeling Good Today and He Loves Me Yeah1 which both find their own ways to break up the dreamy sway of the album. There's more sweet and serene moments on this album than there are destabilizing interludes, but the distractions speak a lot louder than the gentle sway. 5/10
The After Taste - Kenya Grace
Last year a song hit the Hot 100 called "Strangers" by an artist I wasn't familiar with, Kenya Grace. This is a thing that happens often on Billboard charts for musicians with industry support, but the difference was this time I liked the song a lot. Even more surprising than the fact that it was good, it was a murky self-produced combination of gentle pop and pulsating dance. It's the kind of song that made me look out for anything she did going forward and when this debut album dropped I was hooked right away.
After an intro track the album gets right into Strangers which I still like a lot. But that song was never going to be the true test of the record. I'm fond of the track Stay even though it's EDM flavors are on the genetic side. I mostly appreciate the reservation shown to save them for just the right moment to heighten the track. The first non-Strangers song on the record that I like quite a bit is Someone Else which isn't a surprise because it follows the single's formula. What I like about it is that it twists the refrains around a gentler and more intimate-sounding chorus while still managing to be every bit as catchy. I also really enjoy Hey, Hi, how are you? which is one of the catchiest songs here and I love how much the desperation in the lyrics matches the gentle but anguished vocal performance.
Unfortunately, on some other songs here Kenya Grace weighs into what I've called babydoll pop. I came up with that to try and describe the gentle-voiced eerie post-Melanie Martinez but without any of her charm or creative execution pop music that emerged in the late 2010s and early 2020s. On tracks here where the dance beats are at their least inspired and the vocals their most performatively infantile like it's not fair it gets a little difficult to take. At just 9 tracks and 25 minutes, the record feels more like a proof of concept than anything else. It doesn't exactly nail being conceptual despite some attempts but more importantly it delivers highlights in line with what first spoke to me so much about Strangers. Fans of the styles being blended together here are sure to find something in The After Taste, even if it doesn't reach the peak potential Kenya Grace has as an artist quite yet. 6/10
att. - Young Miko
att. is the debut album from Young Miko, a rapper and singer with the creative versatility to make her a budding superstar. She's been around for a few years now but is in the midst of a full on breakthrough highlighted by some major collaborations, most notably Bizarrap. That's led to quite a bit fo attention and fan hype thrown behind this record and seeing as she took to the same Coachella main stage that Roasilia absolutely tore down just a year ago, the record is well worth diving into.
The most impressive thing about Young Miko isn't just that she can rap and sing, but how fluidly she can switch between them. That doesn't always apply to the transitions within the instrumentals themselves. Opener Rookie Of The Year is a perfect example featuring an incredibly impressive and versatile performance from Miko but the song itself is divided into awkward segments that don't fit together neatly. The record gets right to work showing off that versatility from there with the one-two punch of the harder-hitting arcoiris followed by the much cuter and dreamier tamagotchi.
One thing I'm not crazy about on the record is how often the microphone is taken out of Miko's hands. Some of the biggest highlights on the record like fuck TMZ, wiggy and tres tristes tragos are bookended by underwhelming collaborative cuts. Ultimately the record succeeds the most when Miko is absolutely snatching the spotlight, which thankfully happens often. Even if some of the bells and whistles aren't perfectly aligned with that goal, her star shines bight enough to see it through. Miko is as close to a surefire bet to become a superstar as I can imagine. 6.5/10
