Fletcher has returned for her sophomore album. In many ways, she’s still a fresh, vibrant, young act in the Pop world, but she also spent most of her 20s languishing in obscurity. But now that she has broken through, into the mainstream, she seems very keen on making the most of it.
Serious label funding definitely helps on that front, I imagine.
But, also, with how doggedly Fletcher has pursued this career, I can’t blame her for throwing herself at it to ensure she becomes established.
I made it clear at the beginning of my review of Kacey Musgraves’ Deeper Well that I would be looking forward to comparing the two albums, specifically in how they moved on from their predecessor, given that the respective predecessors utilized basically the same throughline. For those unfamiliar with Fletcher’s debut album, Girl of My Dreams: it’s a breakup album in which the ultimate realization is that Fletcher, herself, is the girl of her own dreams. Surviving heartbreak and learning self-love was the core arc, and it’s one that has been done several times in the last couple of years.
In Search of the Antidote starts off as very introspective, which feels fitting: picking up at “I love myself as I am, but I can also work on myself” just works. However, this approach doesn’t last; it begins to deteriorate a bit in track 2, “Doing Better”, and is gone entirely by “Lead Me On”, which is the fourth song on the album. The fourth song. Of eleven.
The deterioration is disappointing because many of the songs (“Doing Better”, “Eras of Us”, and more) are clearly written about the same ex, Shannon Beveridge, who was the crux of the last album. It feels obsessive, and undermines the growth which was the ultimate point of Girl of My Dreams. Others are very possibly about other relationships, including “Attached to You” and the final two songs (“Joyride” and “Antidote”, which may be about a new/current relationship. Or even a theoretical one.
And, really, this is a shame, because the power in Fletcher’s vocals on this album is incredible. It’s only been a year-and-a-half since her last album came out, but the improvement in her vocal work is crystal clear, and the songs really benefit from it. They’re all really solid, enjoyable songs (though the blended phrasing of “Two Things Can Be True”, normally a trick I enjoy in poetry and songs, strikes me as overdone, gratuitous, and maybe even kitschy).
It seems, to me, that maybe this one needed a little more time to cook. It feels, as a unit, half-baked. And I need to echo the same complaint I made on my review of Empress Of’s For Your Consideration: 11 tracks, only three longer than three minutes, and 31 minutes of total playtime?
It’s not a full course. I shouldn’t feel the need to make “Fine Dining” jokes about albums, but as tasty as In Search of the Antidote is, it really feels incomplete. Because of that, I really can’t rate it, as an album, as highly as maybe the individual tracks might otherwise deserve.
Rating: Green