What a Devastating Turn of Events by Rachel Chinouriri

Review written by crimsonhawk666

In her debut album, What A Devastating Turn Of Events, Rachel Chinouriri has cemented her place in the new alt-pop scene. Chinouriri grew up in south London, but her family is originally from Zimbabwe, which gives her a unique take on this white-dominated genre. The songs feel like an intensely personal late-night phone conversation full of deep secrets. As a whole, this album really feels like it’s about finding your own personal sense of “home” and growing with the experiences you have had in your life.

Both the first track “Garden of Eden” and the fourth track “My Everything” feel more experimental for the artist, with strange vocalizations and sounds listeners haven’t quite heard before. The multiple layers of vocals in a lot of these songs are really satisfying to listen to. It gives the songs a lot of depth and in some parts, almost creates a sort of ghostly sound. It leaves me wanting to listen over and over again to catch every little note. Chinouriri’s voice is really the most focal instrument of this album, both with her main vocals and all of the background singing in it as well. “It Is What It Is” and “Dumb Bitch Juice” have some more satirical moments in a moment of levity before getting into the deeper songs on the back half of the album. The former in particular have beautifully done spoken word parts, which is highly unexpected coming from the rest of the album. I personally hope for more spoken word songs from her in the future because the sort of rant/conversation style of this song is done so exquisitely in her unique voice.

“What A Devastating Turn of Events”, the title track, is truly a turning point in the album. This track is such a raw, personal story about the suicide of her cousin. It starts a theme that goes through both “My Blood” and “I Hate Myself”, focusing on this feeling of not being quite adequate enough for family members. These songs can almost feel too personal, like you are reading pages of her diary that you shouldn’t. “I Hate Myself” in particular is about gaining weight and losing it and everything that comes along with that. Sadly body image issues are rampant in the world right now, particularly in women. I don’t think I know one person in my life that hasn’t had issues with how they look at some point in their life. Despite this being such a widespread thing, at times it can feel almost taboo to talk about, so I’m glad this song was included on the album. It’s hard to talk about mental health issues in music, but these are done in such an engaging, eloquent way. I think a lot of people can relate to these kind of songs, especially the deep grief of losing someone too soon in “Robbed”. It’s hard to find the line between personal and relatable, but this album holds that line perfectly.

This album is very guitar and drums heavy, especially with “The Hills” and “Cold Call” starting off with these heavy, crunchy guitar riffs. What’s really interesting about this album is how it has these moments of deep quiet, but also these huge bombastic sounds. Everything is perfectly balanced for the maximum effect, it is produced impeccably. Even with the incredible differences of the songs, like how “Never Need Me” is more upbeat and synthy, versus “Pocket” later in the album being very slow and acoustic, the whole album still sounds like one cohesive whole. With all of these differences it makes listeners feel like they are in the throws of Chinouriri’s own life, all the highs and lows that comes with that.

Through the entirety of this album, the one thing that really shines above everything else is Chinouriri’s distinctive voice. Even though it goes through several moods, themes, and genres, it all feels like “her”, which is so refreshing in a world where a lot of lyricists are trying to make a more relatable song rather than a more personal one. With her accent towering through in every song, and with the way she tells these stories, you feel like you know everything about her by the end of it. It is truly one of the best albums that have come out in the indie pop genre recently, and will be interesting to see what Rachel Chinouriri goes on to do next.