Yo-yo aficionado and Atlanta-based songwriter Faye Webster is making seriously smooth moves on her new single "In A Good Way".
If you're a proponent of a post-genre world, then perhaps Faye Webster can be your poster-child of such a world. In 2019, her breakout LP Atlanta Millionaires Club delivered songs double-dipped in bluegrass, folk, pop, R&B and hip-hop. For example, the album had sultry folk tracks like "Right Side of my Neck", with its country lap-steel sound, next to minimalist grooves like "Flowers", with its vocal nod to Aaliyah's R&B inflection. In the hands of a lesser songwriter, the criss-cross of styles could sound like a slap-and-dash effort. On Atlanta Millionaires Club, genre lines are happily fickle.
So, what makes it work? Perhaps it's Webster's public embrace of the things she likes; photography (some of her snaps include portraits of Offset and Lil' Yachty), and yo-yos (she designed her own yo-yo called "The Pidgeon"). On the other hand, it could be the result of navigating the music industry. Originally signed with hip-hop collective Awful Records (label leader Father raps on Webster's track "Flowers"), in 2018 the artist moved to indie label Secretly Canadian. Seemingly, it's the mish-mash of it all that makes her melancholic songs so exciting. "In A Good Way", Webster proves that music is great when genre lines are blurry.
