Fatigue (album)

Taja Cheek planned on naming her second record Suck Teeth because she "loved how it encapsulated a very black sound of disapproval, annoyance, and disappointment."[2]

Fatigue has musical footing in experimental pop, as well as orchestral pop.[3][4] However, the record contains diverse songs that bend genre. Ambient music, gospel, jazz, post-punk, neo soul, R&B, shoegazing, soft rock and sound collage have all been melded into L'Rain's own aesthetic.[5][6][7]

Fatigue makes significant use of field recordings.[3][7] The latter half of "Find It" samples a pastor singing at a funeral Cheek attended.[8] "Black Clap" has sounds from a hand game she created alongside co-producer and multi-instrumentalist Ben Chapoteau-Katz. About it, she said that "in the studio, I was thinking about ways that play can improve your life, and I was like, 'I'll just make up a hand game, because that's something I used to do when I was a kid.'"[8]

It is also shaded in psychedelia,[4][5][9] with its songs working in neo-psychedelia.[5] Psychedelic musicians like Syd Barrett and quartet Animal Collective have been noted as spiritual touchstones for L'Rain's music.[4] L'Rain has cited the latter's early recordings as informative to her.[8]

The second song, "Find It", digs into "warped, genre-mashing" pop-soul and "sweet, distorted" shoegaze pop.[4][10] Experimentation continues even when songs dip into conventional pop and dance sounds, like on "Kill Self" and "Two Face".[3] The latter song's R&B yields a "heady cacophony".[11]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	7.2/10[12]
Metacritic	86/100[13]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[14]
Beats Per Minute	65%[15]
The Line of Best Fit	8/10[5]
Paste	8.7/10[16]
Pitchfork	8.5/10[3]
Spectrum Culture	72%[17]

Fatigue was welcomed with critical applause upon its release. On Metacritic, the record holds a score of 86 out of 100, based on seven reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[13]

Paul Simpson for AllMusic applauded the record, seeing it as "even bolder and dreamier than [her] self-titled debut" and "a uniquely powerful expression of her uncompromising vision."[14] Aymeric Dubois for The Line of Best Fit called it "reflective and exposing...a transformative listen".[5]

Adapted from the record's Bandcamp page.[34]