Sounds like:  The floating pulse of a heart laid bare.

I don’t even know where to start with this album. Vagabon is Laetitia Tamko and “Sorry I Haven’t Called” is her third album. The thing is, each record has been so different from the one that proceeded it.

I fell head over heels with 2017’s “Infinite Worlds,” with its minimal guitar sound.  But then 2019’s self titled release eschewed that approach for a more modern, beat heavy one. It was a solid release, but it felt a little darker in comparison and tougher to penetrate. It held its secrets close.

The curtains get thrown back on “Sorry I Haven’t Called.”  An album which is bright and warm, but also intimate.  The album starts with a question: “Can I Talk My Shit?”  From that point onward, it feels like we, the listener, have been pulled into a private conversation, hearing secrets and vulnerabilities.  Confessional though it is, “Sorry I haven’t called is actually a deceptively slick dance record, with a consistent flow.  That’s how this record got its hooks in me. It became one of my favorite albums to draw to. Week after week, I would crawl into the cocoon Vagabon provides and let myself just flow with the music. A fluid groove that also has the intimacy of a hug.

At its center sits “Autobahn,” and it’s the only song (other than the Interlude) that ditches the beat altogether. In its place is a haunting phrase played on what sounds like a Hammond organ. It’s the album’s most bare number, both in sound, but also in emotion. The song opens grounded and earthbound, but slowly it becomes weightless. Then, a small beat emerges in the last few seconds to become the only sound we hear. To me, it’s a heartbeat; We’ve reached the center, the most personal, the most honest, it’s Vagabon’s revealed heart and now we’re floating. It a beautiful trick on a beautiful album. From there, the album’s tempos pick back up, and the pulse resumes.  We never lost flow, but for moment, we did leave the ground.  Three albums on, Vagabon is full of surprises as she “talks her shit,” so lean in & listen close.

Favorite Track:  I have to give it to “Can I Talk My Shit,” one of my favorite openers of the year.