Thea Gilmore＜限定盤＞

Following a divorce from her longtime recording partner and the 2021 release of an album under the pseudonym Afterlight, a moniker adopted as a new identity of sorts, Thea Gilmore reclaimed her given name in 2022 with the EP WAS and its 2023 companion, IS. Each EP contained three original tracks and a cover song; the six originals reappear alongside six new songs on the self-titled Thea Gilmore. A largely empowering set steeped in awareness and self-examination, it sees Gilmore take a musically adventurous approach to her adult alternative songs, incorporating spoken monologues and borrowing from hip-hop and dance music as well as pop on select tracks. Funky programmed beats, pre-existing voice recordings, and a spoke-sung delivery distinguish opening track "Nice Normal Woman," a phrase taken from a line in the classic film All About Eve ("Write me one about a nice normal woman who just shoots her husband"). The tracks deliberately playful production was intended to subvert expectations while delivering lines like "This is not a song/This is not a poem/This is not the way that you pray or a quick how-to for growing/This is not yours." The more earnest "Bones" combines a feminist viewpoint with an understated disco that gives potency to lyrics including "You can bury us like secrets in the red lines/But its just bones." She opts for an ethereal alt-rock on "Unravel Me," a song about sex and intimacy, settles into an ominous noir-rock on "Talking out of Tune," and fashions a spare, singsongy guitar pop on the affectionate "Thats Love Motherfucker." The latter song is among the albums warmer material, a handful of tracks that also includes the straight-up love song "The Chance." The record closes on the tender "The Bright Service," a song whose memorable, wordless sung melody and marching beats underscore spoken self-reflection and affirmation. On point thematically if musically mercurial, Thea Gilmore reveals a singer/songwriter seemingly on the other side of an emotional crossroads as well as an artist still trying new things over 20 albums into her career. ~ Marcy Donelson