Album Rating: 3.2 | Sound Off

Kinda agree with Dewi upon first listen. Gonna see if it holds up with subsequent listens.

Album Rating: 4.8 | Sound Off

I genuinely can't imagine thinking these songs are grounded in "studio trickery" rather than the variety being founded in the side array of themes and emotions

This wouldn't work if it were another played straight folk album

Album Rating: 4.8 | Sound Off

It's just weird to me seeing people calling the production inauthentic when emotional honesty is literally the main theme of this album and it's delivered splendidly lmao

We are saying the same, ain't we? lol

The production is on point. Her songs? not impressed, sorry!

"I Know the end" ridiculizes the rest of the tracks too (well, the second half, which feels like a completely different song).

Album Rating: 2.5 | Sound Off

this review is extremely yes

gonna jam this again now

But I know you are loving this neekbro and I hate to be the party pooper! God knows I love a good hype.

So I'm out!

Album Rating: 5.0

@Neek That doesn't really disagree with my point.... If this were played as a straight folk record yeah, it'd not be nearly as grand, varied, or emotional. I can't disagree that the effects are a big part of its character, which is my point of contention. If these songs can't stand on their own, which I don't think some here would, they'd be boring without the effects. In other words, barring what themes the lyrics may bring (I haven't dug into them yet) I'd feel all the same emotion if this were instrumental. The lyrics might add another layer, but the vocal melodies are mostly inconsequential.

Album Rating: 2.0

"It's just weird to me seeing people calling the production inauthentic when emotional honesty is literally the main theme of this album and it's delivered splendidly lmao"



Apart from a few songs (basically, Funeral) I've always found her approach to emotional honesty pretty immature and surface-level tbh

Album Rating: 5.0 | Sound Off

I’m immature so I love it

Album Rating: 2.0

Gotta respect that

Album Rating: 2.5 | Sound Off

"I've always found her approach to emotional honesty pretty immature and surface-level tbh"

I half agree and half think that part of her craft is the way her lyrical voice acknowledges and plays up to this (Smoke Signals and Motion Signals big time + Kyoto literally closes with the refrain "I'm a liar who lies").

It works on those tracks and a decent chunk of BOCC, but I think that's because their style is so upfront and inviting. The minimal or studio-dependent tracks here don't have nearly the same charm and kinda rely on you viewing her more as an Earnest Serious Artist - not that she doesn't deserve that kinda of credential, but the fact that this music *needs* to fall into that framework misses a lot of the more playful and bubbly aspects that were central to her appeal imo. Think I've done my time with and found my take on this lol, time to save the highlights and move on

Album Rating: 2.0

I do enjoy the subtle self-deprecation in some of her lyrics, I'm just not sure she's actually aware of her own main flaw to be able to aim this tool effectively - that is, her inability to expand her emotional palette beyond a very plain 'sadness'. Outside of the boppy singles (MS, Kyoto), which I enjoy for what they are but am not particularly emotionally attached to, the only times I can remember her breaking her emotional glass ceiling were to effectively evoke bitter nostalgia in Scott Street and to illustrate quite a weighty despair in Funeral, which itself only really comes from someone else's story (the dead kid!!).



In essence, I think she's probably a bit self-centred when her life really doesn't seem all that awful enough to write impactful 'sad' music, but singer-songwriters gonna singer-songwrite I guess. Anyway, I'm looking forward to hearing I Know the End as the livestream version was really powerful so maybe she will be able to add another 'great' song to her roster, but I'm not overwhelmingly hopeful for the rest of the album as everyone seems to be saying that/Kyoto is the best here.

Album Rating: 4.8 | Sound Off

@Dewi appreciate you hoss and none of that was necessarily directed towards you, you know how i get < 3

Album Rating: 4.8 | Sound Off

@Ben I don't really think of Phoebe's music as all that sad in terms of her personal life, I relate to her in that I'm someone who's life is pretty damn good tbh but I get stuck in a rut about shit that goes on around me (i.e. "Funeral", "Graceland Too")

from her p4k feature: "all this fucked up shit from my childhood, the stuff that I’m actually paying for therapy to get through"

there's definitely an insinuation that her music arises from a deep well of trauma. whether that's convincing is another story

Album Rating: 2.0

Btw, I certainly don't want to minimise the severity of anything she might have been through that I don't know about, as you said luci her music just simply doesn't convict me of that for the most part. She seems like someone who has convinced themselves they're sad, but whose music doesn't have the emotional gravitas to back that up.



I am looking forward to hearing Graceland Too though, love me some country-tinged rock/pop!

Album Rating: 3.5

If She can do whatever she wants to do / She can go home, but she's not going to is in reference to Julien, it's absolutely heartbreaking, but oh so lovely and hopeful.

Album Rating: 2.5 | Sound Off

hot take Graceland Too is the worst song in the final 4

Album Rating: 3.5

Savior Complex*** No, but I like the last four, as well as the first four. I think the weakest run is Halloween/Chinese/Moon Song.