Sorry I Haven't Called

The self-titled second album by Laetitia Tamkos Vagabon project marked a shift from the singer/songwriters earlier guitar-based style to a much more electronic sound, as she mainly wrote music on her laptop while touring. Her life changed considerably with the death of her best friend in 2021. She relocated to a remote village in Northern Germany, with no phone service, and worked on music by herself. Going to raves in dark clubs helped her process her grief, and she continued incorporating more dance music influences into her songs. The album was finished in Los Angeles with co-producer Rostam Batmanglij, and additional production and co-writing by several other friends. Right from the opening song, "Can I Talk My Shit?," her lyrics are both more blunt and more sensual, and her voice sounds higher in register and more delicate, almost entirely removed from the dusky feel of her earlier releases. Despite the heaviness of the life events that lead to the albums creation, the music is also lighter and more vibrant, even if the songs are about the difficulty of moving on, like the gentle Afro-pop groover "Carpenter." "You Know How" is an intimate confessional aimed at someone she wants to be more than friends with, set to a thumping deep house rhythm. A light disco-funk rhythm propels "Lexicon"s message about dancing all night to keep from worrying about romantic feelings and relationship troubles. The easygoing midtempo pulse of "Its a Crisis" would seem a lot less tense as an instrumental, and a partial release comes in the form of a horn solo which sounds like its being played from the edge of a tunnel. Most devastating is the atmospheric drumnbass tune "Do Your Worst," in which Tamko faces someone giving off bad energy and turning her into someone she doesnt like. Final song "Anti-Fuck" is the closest Tamko comes to revisiting the indie rock angst of her debut, with distorted guitars simmering beneath her vulnerable lines which seek for clarity in a relationship. Though Tamko continues to address uneasy subjects and feelings with her music, she sounds more assured than before on her illuminating third album. ~ Paul Simpson