Faye Webster’s indie-pop is elegant yet comically absurd, a confusing soup of tenderness, detachment and stylistic non-sequiturs. (Alt-country pedal steel? Sure! Rapper cameos? You betcha. R&B hooks? Naturally.) The Wild West of streaming has conditioned us all to say “fuck genre,” a noble and inspiring mission statement in many ways. But even in this post-everything era, it’s still shocking how much the Atlanta songwriter manages to get away with—all the while popping up on Obama’s “favorite songs” playlists (“Better Distractions” in 2020) and making a tiny but notable dent on the Billboard charts (her acclaimed fourth LP, 2021’s I Know I’m Funny Haha). It’s heartening that, even as Webster’s profile has risen, so has her love for strange ideas. For the masterful Underdressed at the Symphony, that even applies to her release strategy (the album’s most obvious single, “Feeling Good Today,” is a mere 86 seconds of hilariously Auto-Tuned crooning and finger-strummed electric guitar) and the sequencing (the first track, the sweetly soulful “Thinking About You,” stretches out to a patience-testing six and a half minutes, ending with a lengthy jam). But it’s a testament to Webster’s versatility and songcraft that most of these decisions feel graceful: “Lego Ring” pairs shoegaze distortion, tempo changes and the garbled vocal processing of Lil Yachty into a beautiful mindfuck—but as the song plays, you can’t imagine it unfolding any other way. We need this level of absurdity in the pop music ether. Webster is a national treasure.