American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and photographer Faye Webster got what was, by any definition of the phrase, a big break when, at the end of last year, none other than former President of the United States of America Barack Obama picked her track Better Distractions for his end of year ‘best of’ list. 

Having self-released her debut album Run And Tell in 2013, Webster then signed with Awful Records and released a self-titled followup in 2017. Her third album, 2019’s Atlanta Millionaires Club, spawned the track Room Temperature, which was promoted by Rolling Stone magazine. But still, the nod from Obama was huge.

And now Webster is building on that momentum with her new album, the dryly named I Know I’m Funny Haha, an eleven-track collection that kicks off with, yep you guessed it, Better Distractions. 

In truth, it’s a great track for newcomers to Webster to begin with, a perfect example of the sort of introspective and beguiling indie country she specialises in. It’s on the third track that newbie’s will first get a real sense of her razor sharp eye as a lyricist, the album’s title song being a riveting tale of meeting her partner’s family for dinner, and the recogniseable flow of their conversation (“Let's sit around and drink some sake / And we can argue about the same things / Talk about neighbours on the front porch / I wonder if they know we're moving / I hope they don't know my landlord personally / 'Cause I never told him you moved in with me / But fuck him, he kept my money”).

Elsewhere, on A Dream With A Baseball Player, Webster writes to her crush, the baseball player Robert Acuña Jr who represents her hometown team the Atlanta Braves, telling him “I saw you last night in my dream / That's still the closest you and I have been / That's kind of sad, don't you think? / I think so”), while Cheers is a relatable and searingly honest breakup song.

Ultimately, I Know I’m Funny Haha feels like Webster developing even further as an artist and lyricist. Obama, it seems, knows his stuff. 

I Know I’m Funny Haha tracklist:

1. Better Distractions
2. Sometimes
3. I Know I’m Funny Haha
4. In A Good Way
5. Kind Of
6. Cheers
7. Both All The Time
8. A Stranger
9. A Dream With A Baseball Player
10. Overslept (featuring Mei Ehara)
11. Half Of Me

The official Youtube video for A Dream With A Baseball Player. 

Author: Joe Sharratt

Joe Sharratt is a writer and journalist based in the UK covering music, literature, sport, and travel.