THAO WITH THE GET DOWN STAY DOWN
KNOW BETTER, LEARN FASTER
KILL ROCK STARS
Her debut gave Kill Rocks Stars their highest selling record of 2008, so Thao Nguyen can be forgiven for returning to the template of bright, breezy folk-rock that catapulted into the indie big-time. Sufjan Stevens producer Martine fills out the infectiously sprightly ditties, loaded with heartsick laments to an expired relationship. Granted her lyrical content contains many wry, resentful anecdotes about those painful last days of love, but musically the persistent peppiness can be cloying. It’s when she drops the act and lets her chin drop, on the likes on the title track, that some much needed context is provided, making her stoic optimism elsewhere on the album all the more poignant. Andrew Bird is on hand with an elegiac violin to prop her up again, and frequently the results are quietly moving.
7/10
DOWNLOAD: ‘KNOW BETTER, LEARN FASTER’, ‘BODY’, ‘BUT WHAT OF STRANGERS’
FOR FANS OF: AIMEE MAN, FEIST, NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL
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