Tracey Thorn

oh fuck yes

like that.
all we need now is for ben to revive buzzin fly ..
(i never was interested in his post electronic acoustic/guitar material)

This is just what I needed today. Out Of The Woods has become one of my favourite albums ever. Hopefully this will be close to that. The single is very promising.

Here's some PR guff

Describing Queen, Tracey says: “It’s a great opener for the album - driven along by Ewan Pearson’s unashamedly glittering electro-pop production, drums and bass from Warpaint’s Stella and Jenny, it features me playing electric guitar for the first time in a while, and singing my heart out.”

As ever the personal has often been political in Tracey Thorn’s work. “Nine feminist bangers,” Tracey Thorn jokes when asked to describe ‘Record.’ If this album is in part about freedom and disenthrallment, new single ‘Queen’ is the opening broadside, all personal fire and desire. Her voice, self-assured and richly-textured, yet confessional and affecting, spits out the lyrics on ‘Record’ with a fresh compelling drive and remains one of the finest female pop voices of the last four decades.

”I think I’ve always written songs which chronicle the milestones of a woman’s life.” she says. “Different ages and stages, different realities, not often discussed in pop lyrics. If 2010’s Love and Its Opposite was my mid-life album - full of divorce and hormones - then ‘Record’ represents that sense of liberation that comes in the aftermath, from embarking on a whole new 'no fucks given' phase of life."

On Record, the synth-driven tracks arrive and leave with a punchy sub-three-minute directness. “I wanted it to be a record you’d listen to in the daytime,” Tracey says. “On your headphones or on the move. Not necessarily in the evening, or in your bedroom.” For all its no-fuss pop brevity, the album rotates around Sister, a dubby nine-minute Compass Point-style disco jam where Tracey is joined again by Warpaint’s rhythm section and glorious backing vocals from Corinne Bailey Rae.

Across four decades Tracey’s songs and writing have offered up a clear-eyed woman’s view of the immediate world around her; from the acerbic teen love songs of her first early-eighties band Marine Girls, through sixteen years as one half of articulate multi-million-selling duo Everything But The Girl to her recent acclaimed memoirs and journalism."

I've now gotten ahold of this record and boy oh boy is it good.

oh fuck yes

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

I've now gotten ahold of this record and boy oh boy is it good.

― Johnny Fever

Yeah, I just heard this for the first time too. It's the first great album I've heard this year.

I... don't know how I feel about this album

I think I just don't like "Guitar"

We thought it was absolutely wonderful, start to stop.

is that the royal we, Ned? are you implying that you are queen?

I think I just don't like "Guitar"

― algorithm is a dancer (katherine),

a Prince cover?

xpost -- 'We' meaning myself and my girlfriend, thank you.

a Prince cover?

if only; instead it's a colorless perky '80s thing

"Sister" is fantastic though

he is also queen, we had a vote and liz is out

Greetings my loyal subjects.

This album rocks. More albums about a woman in late middle age who's social media savvy and still anticipates a few turbulent love affairs.

Check out @tracey_thorn played on #iggyconfidential last Friday. Lady does not disappoint! #iggypop

— Iggy Pop (@IggyPop) March 4, 2018

I'm in love with "Guitar" and "Air."

Love this album. Played it twice in a row yesterday and woke up wanting to hear it again

In love with "Guitar" and "Dancefloor", me.

Loving the album too. I think it's one of the best things she's ever done. My current favourite is Air as it would fit nicely on the Shura album. Dancefloor is such a brilliant closer, I just wish it was a bit longer. Kind of has a Pop Kids vibe to it.

Video for Sister

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5A-XyMzTSWc

the beats on the new album are really cheap. and the songs are not very good either. it all sounds pretty much like mainstream. i love tracey thorn but this is very dispensable.

why aren't they very good? "Guitar" and "Babies" present points of view we don't often hear in songs, and their melodies are delectable. I don't treat as a dance record – it's a singer-songwriter record with dance colorings, in the same way Bill Callahan would use strings or John Darnielle a brass section.

it all sounds pretty much like mainstream.

Judging by this comment I'm not sure how much mainstream pop you listen to. This is much better produced than both a lot of mainstream 80s-inflected pop and the sort of shambahla stuff that's popular here. A lesser producer than Ewan Pearson would be tempted to really max out every sound, he allows every sound (especially the voice) the space it needs. He and Tracey are excellent foils for one another

I love this, I love her voice

I love how effortless and shimmery the music is

This sounds like Drake, Cardi B, and Post Malone.

I mean, I can see what they are getting at, particularly "Guitar," the production of which sounds like everything I hated about the Paramore album and parts of the last Carly Rae Jepsen record

this is really great i think

it's funny how the decline of the music biz makes for strange fellows, imagine thinking oh yeah tracey thorn will be on superchunk's label 20 years ago

i don't think it sounds cheap at all, it's very well engineered and mastered

"Go" is just tremendous, cheap-esque drum sounds included

I mean, I can see what they are getting at, particularly "Guitar," the production of which sounds like everything I hated about the Paramore album and parts of the last Carly Rae Jepsen record

― algorithm is a dancer (katherine),

but it's fascinating how both albums were disappointments or outright flops – they were failed crossovers.

Both of those albums are over-compressed to hell in the way that you'd expect from artists gunning for maximum radio play in 2018, that's notably not the case here. I can see how the sound palette and other production choices might be similar (and offputting) but the treatment of them is completely different.

Yes agreed

I will probably always be a total, melty mess for these big, clear, generous alto female voices over 80s inspired synths - Alison Moyet the other obvious example of this

The lyrics and themes in this album are incredible. I don’t gaf if the sounds are cheap. The emotions and depth of thought overwhelm any blandness of the production.

lol do you really think it sounds bland

like i guess i don't associate EBTG or her w/super edgy experimental stuff, more literate well mannered electronic stuff w good songwriting

Its brevity is something my girlfriend and I loved as well -- it does the business quickly but does so in a way that feels like a big scope of a record, perhaps even more so lyrically than musically.

I really love Tracey Thorn, EBTG and solo, I just cannot deal at all, ever, from anyone, with that chintzy canned "Take on Me" sound

take on me is a very good song

it all sounds pretty much like mainstream.

Judging by this comment I'm not sure how much mainstream pop you listen to

‘Computer beats’, Stella Mozgawa will love that.

I just cannot deal at all, ever, from anyone, with that chintzy canned "Take on Me" sound

whathuh?

how do people not hear that in "Guitar" at least?

my favourite thing about this record is her willingness to tackle subject matter that other, younger artists might find a bit banal or naff (3 am baby feeds, sending your kids off to college, stalking your ex's Facebook), but doing so with great levity and humour.

The production sounds a bit thin and dated in some places (not a fan of "Guitar", agree with katherine on this), but there's also "Sister", which is incredibly groovy and lush.

anyway, "what year is it? same old shit."

I don't hear a chintzy, canned "Take On Me" sound in "Guitar" at all, and/but also I love the sound of "Take On Me". There's an '80s (though not 'dated') and sparse (though not 'thin') feel to most of Queen, but to me there's a clear contrast with the, indeed compression-heavy, sound on After Laughter, which I disliked for that reason.

(another example would be Toni Halliday's first solo album -- I want to like it but the '80s production is overwhelming)

it's all very 80's certainly but not in a way that particularly evokes "Take On Me"?

album is great, all excellent songs. i especially like Guitar and the ending of Air. the production doesn't really stand out but i'm a fan of the style and it supports the songs well

On her incredible catalog.

At Electric mastering @tracey_thorn Dancefloor remixes right now. 💃🎉 pic.twitter.com/kOoF7VtkP9

— Ewan Pearson (@ewanpearson) March 22, 2018