Noname — “Room 25”, Album Review
by Nikita Chistov.
Chicago native, poet and singer Fatimah Warner aka Noname, has been turning quite a lot of heads in the past few years, following the release of her debut mixtape Telefone in 2016 and her first full-length record Room 25 at the end of 2018. Granted, it’s been almost 10 months since the album’s official release, but it is only now that I decided to give Room 25 a proper listen.
I usually try to find a fitting listening environment that does justice to the album’s unique qualities, so in this sense, it is actually fortunate that I am listening to Room 25 in spring as opposed to fall. It is, after all, very much a spring record. Ranging from the underlying themes of romantic relationships & Noname’s sexual ventures to the lush instrumental passages, from the heartfelt choir melodies to the rapper’s idiosyncratic delivery, the album is brimming with vitality of springtime. Warner is the voice of spring — coy, intimate, sometimes breaking into an ASMR-type-whisper, and never trying to draw too much attention to her presence.
Noname’s sense of balance, the extra step she takes to preserve the delicate atmosphere in a given track, is what distinguishes her from many modern-day rappers. Instead of ostentatious attempts at showing that this really is her record, she keeps her appearances relatively short and low key and lets the musicians do the rest. Noname appears to me a curious bystander of sorts on Room 25 in that she reflects on the things happening around her without necessarily always being in the limelight. However, it is not to say that her role is non-important — she is the project’s driving force, regulating the way the record ebbs and flows. A truly versatile artist, Warner readily jumps on top of instrumentals of all grooves, paces, and vibes and complements them in her profoundly nuanced, Noname-y manner.
Her poetic side shows itself in her metric changes, lines of varying length imitating real human speech patterns and reinforcing the dynamic character of the entire record. Meanwhile, her lyrics are chock-full of witty quotables, dealing with serious topics like racism, sexism, gentrification, as well as human fragility. As on the precursor Telefone, Noname and company masterfully juxtapose the overall feeling with lyrical content — tranquil with acerbic, upbeat with vulgar, soulful with politically charged — to create a bittersweet effect. The rapper even notes that she “needs D’Angelo on this one”, the king of languid, nostalgia-fraught soul, on Don’t Forget About Me, thus emphasizing the track’s emotional complexity.
As Noname cruises from one vibrant image to another, Phoelix, the record’s executive producer, who also produced and performed with such artists as Saba and Smino, weaves an equally vibrant musical network around her to help her images come to life. The production quality is indeed stunning. A work of singular sensibility that informs Room 25 with a deep organic feel. Drunk drum grooves, silky basslines, poignant vocal melodies, ECM Records-type-guitar passages, charming ambient washes, you name it — the production team has prepared a whole array of surprises. When combined, these elevate the record to an entirely different level of artistic expression and push the boundaries of what is already quite loosely defined as hip–hop music.
Another stellar Noname release. Room 25 sets the bar tremendously high and makes me very excited to see how her vision will manifest itself on the next projects, as she continues to develop her unique style & sound.
Rating: 9/10.
Highlights: “Prayer Song”, “Regal”, “With You”, “Montego Bae” feat. Ravyn Lenae.
