
Album review - Thao & the Get Down Stay Down
Thao & the Get Down Stay Down
We the Common
Ribbon Music
There's nothing "common" about Thao Nguyen's talent and vibe. A delicious unease grasps these 12 tracks, a sort of folksy Williamsburg (Kentucky AND Brooklyn) feeling. Her voice, gritty as a washboard and sincere as a dove, slices through young-adult monotony.
"We don't call, we don't write. We love some strangers every night-- oh, no," she laments in the brassy "We Don't Call." In battling with a dooting sax that acts as her foil, she musically walks the tightrope of coolness and frailty. It's a song that's all at once a throwback to Edie Brickell and a rocket blasting off into the future NYC sound.
In further looking back to look forward, Nguyen teams with Appalacian-granny-sounding Joanna Newsom on "Kindness Be Conceived," a Carter Family-like boot-stomper. It's a fun little think-piece on "why we breathe and why we die." Agnosticism never sounded so pretty.
T&TGDSD take other cues from nascent acoustic R&B (Dirty Projectors influence rings clear and true on the spidery "Every Body)" and other ferocious fillies ("Move" would make Karen O and Alison Mosshart proud). Nguyen is an artist that sings as gayly of life's tribulations as she does of its triumphs. And that is worth celebrating.
- Melissa Bobbitt
More from Melissa Bobbitt (See All)
Introducing: Jekkel
Melissa Bobbitt 0Full disclosure: I've known the Cathcart siblings of the intensified rockabilly group Jekkel for the better part of 20 years now; we went to elementary through high school together, and even in those...
Sep 19, 2012Music Releases Move to Friday— Now What?
Melissa Bobbitt 0The big hullaballoo this past week in the music world was that the world got a little more united. Friday was dubbed the universal day for fresh releases, after a lifetime of varying days for...
Mar 2, 2015Comments
Recent posts
Subscribe!
Receive updates on what's going on in live entertainment, events, and music.