Sorry I Haven't Called is the third studio album by Cameroon-born musician Laetitia Tamko, under the stage name Vagabon. It was released on September 15, 2023, through Nonesuch.
Background
Tamko moved to a remote village in Northern Germany in late 2021, where she wrote and recorded most of the album. The project is dedicated to collaborator Eric Littmann, who died in June 2021.[1] However, she clarified that the music had nothing to do with her grief but being "full of life and energy".[2] According to her, she did not intend to be "introspective" but just wanted to have fun with the album.[3] The album was co-produced by Tamko herself and Rostam Batmanglij of Vampire Weekend, who helped her finish the record in late 2022.[4] Inspired by dance music, the record represents the way she communicates with her friends and lovers.[5] She believes that "honesty and conversational songwriting can become poetry" without the use of "metaphors and without flowery imagery".[6]
She announced the album on June 15, 2023, and released the lead single "Can I Talk My Shit?", an "understated and blissfully chill track", the same day.[3] Along with the record, Tamko announced a set of headlining shows in the United States and Europe with supporting act Weyes Blood starting in October 2023.[2]
Sorry I Haven't Called received a score of 79 out of 100 on review aggregator Metacritic based on eight critics' reviews, indicating a "generally favorable" reception.[8] Jo Higgs at The Skinny could confirm the intentions behind the record and stated that the album is indeed "not premised on sorrow but instead delineates a pathway to joy", calling it another one of Tamko's "majestic reinventions".[16] Likewise, DIY's Jack Terry reiterated Tamko's sentiments when recording the album, calling it a "pursuit of happiness" without the use of "mysterious metaphors or lofty linguistics".[11] Charles Lyons-Burt of Slant Magazine thought Tamko delivered a "serviceable enough pop effort" but most of her "edges have been sadly sanded away", as she "leans in a more tonally upbeat direction than her previous releases".[17] Reviewing the album for Pitchfork, Mary Retta described it as a "bright, dewy electro-pop album [that] depicts growing up with candor and levity" as well as observing that it "illustrates a shift in Tamko's storytelling: She sidesteps diffuse, open-ended imagery for blunt, informal observations".[15]
