Album Review: Rachel Chinouriri - 'I Think I Spoke Too Soon'
Heartbreak, sobriety and self forgiveness: Rachel Chinouriri grows up in public.
We've all had that moment at a party, alone in the bathroom, catching a glimpse of yourself in the mirror and feeling yanked into something closer to an existential vortex. That's the entry point for Rachel Chinouriri's sophomore album, I Think I Spoke Too Soon, the South London artist's follow up to her brilliant 2024 debut What A Devastating Turn of Events, a record that earned her two BRIT nominations and an army of fans who hang on her every riff. Two years, a run of tours alongside Sabrina Carpenter, Lewis Capaldi and Florence and the Machine, and a full year of sobriety later, she returns with an album that plays out like one long, turbulent night out, the kind that shifts your whole world on its axis and tells you a few uncomfortable truths about yourself along the way. It's a deeply autobiographical account of her life between 22 and 27, Rachel describing the shift bluntly:
"In my early 20s, I was so self assured of who I was, then my frontal lobe hit and I went, nah, I'm actually not that person."
With Gracie Abrams and a slot on Olivia Rodrigo's first ever festival lined up alongside the album campaign, it arrives at a genuinely pivotal moment for her.
'One Song Away From Crying' sets that scene immediately, a glossy synth pop opener that wouldn't feel out of place soundtracking an episode of Miami Vice, Rachel's idiosyncratic vocals gliding effortlessly over an insatiable groove, that unwanted feeling of crying in the club and soldiering on regardless. 'Pretty Girls' keeps that infectious energy going, her voice softening while a rampant drum line fleshes the track out, built for hazy, half cut dancing. 'Baby Steps' slows things into something dreamier, a floaty ambience letting her tenderness take the lead, "remind me why you're doing this" landing as a genuinely passionate lyric.
From there the record gets more sobering. 'Favourite Desperation' takes a laidback approach as Rachel lays out her worries about a lover, "it's scary but i kind of like it" summing up that familiar apprehension, the fear of being without someone you already know isn't good for you. 'I'm a Star' flips the mood with a whimsical, entrancing chorus and a surprising amount of thrashing guitar, simple on the surface but genuinely profound underneath, and 'AAAHHH!!!' pushes that rock streak further into punk territory, distortion smeared across her vocals for the most abrasive, rebellious moment on the album.
'Broken Chair' is one of the clear highlights, a previously released single built around a brilliant piece of imagery, the post-party clarity of realising you're not as together as you thought, mapped onto a literal broken chair and all its imperfections. "it's getting really hard to love her" is a crushing lyric, and the synth work here is one of the best musical moments on the whole project. 'Shiver' keeps the focus grounded and inward, another deeply impassioned look at her own self doubt, some lovely vocal layering adding extra weight. 'Make Believe', billed by Rachel herself as her sexy song, fits neatly into the album's wider narrative, proof that doubting someone has never been enough to stop you going back to them, a terrible cycle to be stuck in.
As the record winds down, 'Parasite' turns swirling and almost haunting, one of the most devastating moments on the album, "what am i doing?" launching it into a groovier passage as the realisation properly sets in that something here is wrong. 'The Good Fight', the penultimate track, sums up the whole album's central frustration in one song. Being somewhere you know you don't want to be, stuck in conversations that don't serve you and wanting more out of life without the power to change it. It's one of the best tracks here, and sonically one of the most brilliant too. Then comes 'Crash This Car', an outro that pulls every thread of the record together, all that wishing and hoping finally given its best possible vehicle, exploding into a genuinely cathartic release as Rachel realises hoping for something better was never going to be enough on its own.
I Think I Spoke Too Soon is a title that captures the whole album's angst perfectly. Across an eclectic run of tracks, Rachel transforms her insecurities into something passionate, well written and ultimately affirming.
"My core thing is you can change who you are at any moment, and you can forgive yourself at any moment.”
That sense of growth, plus a year of sobriety stitched into nearly every lyric here, comes through loud and clear in the songwriting itself. As far as sophomore albums go, Rachel isn't letting her foot off the gas, and I Think I Spoke Too Soon, out 16th October via Parlophone, is another genuinely excellent project to add to an already impressive run.
Words by Alex Peters
