Rachel Chinouriri is one of the rising stars of British pop. Her hit “All I Ever Asked” has racked up over 100 million streams, she was nominated for the BBC Sound of 2023, and Sabrina Carpenter, Florence + the Machine, and Gracie Abrams have taken her on tour. Raised in London by Zimbabwean parents, she crafts pop that draws from both the eighties and the nineties guitar aesthetics.
Her voice, airy and whispered, is well suited to the versatility of her musical vision, though on her second album, I Think I Spoke Too Soon, that variety can sometimes feel disorienting. On one side there are neon-colored, funky synths; on the other, nineteen-nineties guitars with a touch of indie and bloghouse. Rachel doesn’t quite manage to give the unity expected from such a range of sounds, though the songs still deliver.
Inspired by her own sobriety, I Think I Spoke Too Soon speaks of growing up, questioning the image we have of ourselves, and perhaps admitting that we were mistaken about who we were. The lyrics swing between self-destruction, self-deception, and emotional hangover, with a candor that can be uncomfortable. If “Pretty Girls” finds her “crying glitter,” the electro-disco of “Broken Chair” shines as a grand delulu anthem of the album, with Rachel convincing herself that she is not alone, not unhappy, and not sad. That is what others think.
The album’s sometimes mixed proposition stands out, as if two records had been stitched into one. The bright synths and the funk of certain tracks—such as the superb opening “One Song Away From Crying” in a post-disco vibe, or the more forgettable “Make Believe”—remember recent Doja Cat experiments. Then “Crash This Car” veers into a ballad-grunge moment and “I’m a Star” into a sixties surf mood, both yielding very good results.
There is evident good taste in every aspect of the album’s sound, including the playful garage-punk of “AAAHHHH!!!,” another of the album’s surprising guitar-driven moments in a record that ends up sounding somewhat indecisive. Yet what I Think I Spoke Too Soon does possess is a clutch of strong ideas and an unusual fusion of styles. Its more danceable and guitar-forward facets don’t quite gel as a single whole, but it’s clear that she handles both directions very well.
