{"id":751170,"date":"2026-08-27T07:36:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T07:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/751170\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T07:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T07:36:11","slug":"frances-chang-been-thinking-bout-confession-album-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/751170\/","title":{"rendered":"Frances Chang: been thinking bout confession Album Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Frances Chang<\/a> writes with the self-awareness of a kid who spends way too much time on her phone, but she sings like a much older and wearier soul. The Brooklyn artist\u2019s albums and songs have a tossed-off, first-thought-best-thought quality; titles like \u201cRate My Aura<\/a>,\u201d \u201ci quit cigs<\/a>,\u201d and support your local nihilist<\/a> could all easily pass as Hinge prompts. Look deeper, though, and you\u2019ll find an artist desperately searching for a sense of self. Previous albums, like 2024\u2019s Psychedelic Anxiety<\/a>, wove themselves around knotted guitar lines and chintzy electronic twiddles that mirrored Chang\u2019s passing thoughts, her whispery voice guiding us through her introspective internal geography. Her latest album, this time for RVNG Intl., strips her music down to its barest form, yielding a more graceful and open incarnation in the process.<\/p>\n

Primarily written on a century-old baby grand, been thinking bout confession drifts along on a lounge singer\u2019s lilt. Chang cradles her plainspoken chords as if they were old Bacharach<\/a> ballads; on \u201cIs affect real?,\u201d she glides across a rich bed of strings while admitting, \u201cSometimes I want to wear\/A head of light blonde hair\/I don\u2019t care if that\u2019s unfair\/Or makes me ordinary.\u201d She shyly plinks her keys as the album implores you to join its foggy morning stroll and consider whatever it is in this world you\u2019re still looking for. Chang maintains this wandering pace as she flits from sound to sound. \u201cMarry\u201d shuffles over fuzzy drum machines and an autumnal, Peanuts-y piano instrumental before the interruption of a phone call wherein Chang and her friend discuss a hookup from the previous night; the call ends with Chang asking her friend if she can accompany her to pick up some Plan B. As they gossip over whether the guy was a weirdo or not, you can sense the artist working out her feelings in real time.<\/p>\n

No score yet, be the first to add.<\/p>\n

These songs pour from the same sonic teapot as many other postmodern baroque-pop balladers, evoking Tirzah<\/a>, Eliana Glass<\/a>, and RVNG luminary Julia Holter<\/a> in equal measure. Chang may not yet approach the conceptual or compositional scope of those artists, but where she stands out is in the intimacy she brings to her music\u2014her plainspoken voice remains quiet and collected as she dips smoothly into a sweet falsetto and back again on tracks like \u201cNo avatar,\u201d as though we were peeking in on her as she hums to herself at home. Her arrangements are similarly bare, dipping into digital stock sounds on the guitar-noodling \u201cJob\u2019s tears,\u201d while cheap, weeping strings infuse \u201cBad zen\u201d and \u201cAuratones of Desire\u201d with childlike innocence. There\u2019s little room for gauze or reverb here; every tone comes with clearly defined edges, hanging unadorned in space in a way that can be both distancing and raw at once.<\/p>\n

Chang always seems to be on the verge of discovering something. As album high point \u201cI can feel the waves\u201d slowly moseys along, she searches to understand her partner\u2019s thoughts, suddenly landing on an idea that stops everything: \u201cYou never really know someone\/Never be inside their skin\/Nor would you really wanna be.\u201d From there, she finds a new groove to wander through, drum machines and glassy strings asking new questions prompted by her revelation. The album\u2019s greatest strength and weakness are the same thing: It fully commits to its very specific melancholy without puncturing the surface, remaining out of reach even at her most vulnerable. If that can leave the record feeling a bit one-note, it\u2019s still a lovely mood to simmer in, hinting at all the places her music could go, and all the people she could be.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a><\/p>\n

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