Rachel Chinouriri ‘I Think I Spoke Too Soon’ review: Indie pop star turns her gaze inwards
On her accomplished second album, Rachel Chinouriri zooms in on universal scenarios and wraps them up as pop gems.
Rachel Chinouriri is fast becoming your favourite pop star’s favourite pop star. Over the past few years, the former Rolling Stone UK cover star has toured with Sabrina Carpenter, Florence + the Machine, Louis Tomlinson and more, while also being personally invited by Olivia Rodrigo to play her inaugural Daisy Chain Fields festival earlier this year. In December, she will support Gracie Abrams on a North American arena tour.
The biggest stars in the world see something in Chinouriri, then, and it’s abundant on her second album, I Think I Spoke Too Soon. The names who have taken her under their wing, most notably Abrams, thrive through zooming in on universal feelings and presenting them with hyper-specific lyrics and scenarios. This is also the mode of Chinouriri’s new album, a meditation on growth and the distance between where you are and where you want to be, told through the lens of a revelatory night on the town.
On opening song, ‘One Song Away From Crying’, Chinouriri has “never looked better and never felt worse”, highlighting the dissonance between external opinions and internal narrative. It’s a push-and-pull that defines the album, one that lifts the lid on this special songwriter’s story while pushing her forward sonically into a new realm.
Throughout her career up to now, Chinouriri has had to wrestle her narrative back into her own hands. Taking to Instagram in 2022, she wrote: “My music is not R&B. My music is not soul. My music is not alternative R&B. My music is not neo soul. My music is not jazz. Black artists doing indie is not confusing.”
Her debut album, 2024’s What a Devastating Turn of Events, made her the indie star she was so determined to be allowed to become. Having achieved that, this new album presents a singer who, freed from this cage of sorts, can now be whoever she wants, even if it isn’t always an indie rocker.
I Think I Spoke Too Soon sounds a lot less like the indie she dreamed of than her debut album did. When it does hit these spots, most notably on the crunchy guitars that burst out of the chorus of the brilliant (and accurate) ‘I’m A Star’, she remains a magnetic frontwoman for a rockin’ band.
The likes of the jaunty and danceable ‘Broken Chair’ and breathy ‘Make Believe’, though, see her more interested in pop transcendence. There’s also plenty of The 1975 to be heard in the shining synths of ‘Make Believe’.
Whether future releases see her continuing this hybrid approach or fully embracing the sheen of pop that is hinted at here, I Think I Spoke Too Soon remains a fascinating portrait of both an artist and a person that are in flux together.