Vinyl LP
Hello, I’m Britti. is a fitting title for Brittany Guerin’s debut, a letter to New Orleans full of odes to resiliency, heartache, and empowerment. While the singer is a Baton Rouge native, her history with The Big Easy runs deep. Childhood days spent accompanying her uncle, jazz bassist Roland Guerin, on gigs in New Orleans, absorbing the music and culture, inspired Guerin to dig into the city’s traditions and breathe new life into her art. Under the name Britti, the singer-songwriter weaves her lyrics into the musical fabric of sounds that represent NOLA’s biggest contributions to the world: jazz, funk, brass band, and Black country music, to name a few.
Listening to Hello, I’m Britti. feels like walking through those humid streets, amidst the colorful, wooden houses, hearing a new sound as you pass by each porch. The album opens with “So Tired,” a relatable R&B song where Britti’s airy vocals float over a bed of blues piano and jangly guitars. “So tired/ Living like a refugee at home,” she sings with a slight tinge of self-pity as she recounts the slow death of her relationship. “Back Where We Belong” finds Guerin deep in the bargaining phase, reluctantly pleading for her partner to come back while simultaneously eyeing the door; the coarse, distorted guitar punctuates her footsteps, in a way. By album’s end, on “Once Upon A Time,” she’s arrived at self-acceptance, still a bit sad but also far more resilient, as illustrated by the sorrowful piano; the soaring choir of horns and guitars; and Britti’s confident, husky vocals.
Britti’s voice is versatile and elastic; she’s as equally comfortable with soul as she is with country rock, the drama in her lyrics and in her voice transcending classification. Breaking up the country tunes are songs like “Nothing Compares To You,” a reggae jam with slinky guitars, a pulsating horn section, and Britti’s vocals oozing desire. “Silent movies/ Foreign beauties/ Doesn’t truly matter what comes my way,” she screams. “All love letters/ Lost forever/ Guilty pleasures/ Even those dreams/ […] Nothing compares to you.” Guerin’s voice burns throughout the track, her yearning palpable. This is another striking facet of a rising artist who channels her tumultuous interior life—and the sounds that helped her navigate it—into music that feels fully formed.
