Liz Harris already demonstrated back in 2018, with the Grouper album Grid Of Points, just what a difference the choice of piano over guitar can make within a very broad folk context. So when Frances Chang now opts for the keyboard rather than the guitar on her third album, Been Thinking Bout Confession, is this still folk, or has it become artful pop that is fully aware of its own stylisation? What it certainly isn’t: run-of-the-mill indie folk. The album is spared that fate by the many little jabs the Brooklyn-based musician delivers herself.
Take, for example, ‘I Can Feel The Waves’, where the instruments start to stumble and the song threatens to collapse, only to pick itself up again. The songs take the odd detour, and cheeky chamber-music-style strings repeatedly intrude upon the minimalist arrangements. Frances Chang’s seemingly velvety-soft voice is capable of the most ludicrous twists and turns. At times it feels like a musical – but like the favourite musical of everyone who despises musicals.
