Tracey Thorn — Record (March 2, 2018)
• )↑Ξ→ Enduring British singer/songwriter and one~half of acclaimed indie pop duo Everything But the Girl.
• )↑Ξ→ On one of the defining albums of her 38~year career, the Everything But the Girl singer embraces her inner disco maven in pursuit of freedom from society’s ordained roles for women. (Laura Snapes)
• )↑Ξ→ The Everything But the Girl singer describes her new album as “nine feminist bangers”.
Born: September 26, 1962 in Brookmans Park, Hertfordshire, England
Location: London, UK
Album release: March 2, 2018
Recording Location: RAK, STrongroom, Suburban Home, World Of Apples
Record Label: Merge Records / Unmade
Duration: 35:49
Tracks:
01. Queen 4:17
02. Air (Feat. Shura) 3:03
03. Guitar 2:33
04. Smoke 4:11
05. Sister (Feat. Corinne Bailey Rae) 8:32
06. Go 4:01
07. Babies 2:34
08. Face 3:41
09. Dancefloor 2:57
Credits:
• Edward Bishop Photography
• Stephen James Brown Engineer
• Matt Colton Mastering
• Martin Ditcham Percussion
• John Gilsenan Artwork
• Jack Hudson Assistant
• Matthew Johnson Engineer
• David Jones Assistant
• Jenny Lee Lindberg Bass
• Klas~Henrik Lindblad Mixing
• Jono Ma Guitar (Electric), Synthesizer
• Stella Mozgawa Drums, Hi Hat
• John Opstad Processing, Synthesizer, Violin Arrangement
• Ewan Pearson Divan, Drum Programming, Engineer, Mellotron, Mixing, Moog Synthesizer, Producer, Sequencers, String Samples, Syncussion, Synthesizer, Vocoder
• William Purton Assistant
• Corinne Bailey Rae Featured Artist, Vocals (Background)
• Marta Salogni Engineer
• Shura Featured Artist, Guitar (Electric), Juno, Vocals (Background)
• Jonny Solway Assistant
• Tracey Thorn Composer, Guitar (Electric), Piano, Synthesizer, Vocals
• Clare Wheeler Violin
Notes:
• CD: Packaged in a glossy four~panel wallet. Includes a 12~page booklet with full lyrics.
• LP: Black vinyl packaged in a printed color sleeve, all housed in a glossy gatefold jacket with full lyrics. Includes album download.
Description:
• “Nine feminist bangers,” Tracey Thorn joked when asked to describe her first solo album of entirely original material in seven years. Resplendent in Ewan Pearson’s unashamedly glittering electro~pop production, Record will be released on March 2, 2018.
• “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 this album 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. The album packs an eloquent punch. As ever, the personal has often been political in Tracey Thorn’s work. Across four decades, her 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 ‘80s band Marine Girls through sixteen years as one~half of articulate multimillion~selling duo Everything But The Girl, to her recent acclaimed memoirs and journalism.
© Photo credit: Edward Bishop
AllMusic Review by Tim Sendra; Score: ****
• )↑Ξ→ Seeing the name Tracey Thorn on the cover of a record means there will be things within the grooves that one can count on: thoughtful lyrics that feel intensely personal while still being effortlessly relatable; her incredibly rich voice (which hasn’t aged one bit over the years); and songs that have a warmth baked into their core even when they are disco~ball glittery and perfectly produced, since she only uses collaborators fully attuned to her finer qualities. Released in 2018, Record is no exception to the rule, and even though Thorn throws in a twist to her formula here and there, it’s both of a piece with her previous work and a very worthwhile addition. Thorn worked with longtime collaborator Ewan Pearson, and the pair called on a cast of talented people to help make the record. Warpaint drummer Stella Mozgawa provides rock~solid beats on much of the album; her bandmate Jenny Lee Lindberg handles bass on a song; Jagwar Ma’s Jono Ma adds some guitar firepower to a couple tracks; Shura plays guitar and sings on a song; and Corinne Bailey Rae duets with Thorn on one of the album’s best songs, the slow~motion disco track “Sister.” The diverse cast of musicians is matched by the variety of songs and sounds found here as well. Calmly bubbling electropop (“Air”) bumps up against hooky new wave (“Guitar”), brooding piano ballads (“Smoke”) lead into expansive indie pop that sounds like a sincere Pulp (“Babies”), and deeply felt synth pop laments segue into sparkling disco~pop with fat basslines and rippling synths (“Dancefloor”), with the one constant being Thorn’s powerful singing. She fills the speakers with booming, beating emotion as she looks back at her life — sometimes fondly, sometimes not — talking about the music and people that shaped her along the way into the fully realized artist she is now. It’s not a delicate look back either; she spares not fools and doesn’t back down from a fight. Especially on “Sister,” which powerfully laments the lack of progress women have made against those who seek to put them down in various ways. This clear~eyed view of the past and the care put into the sound make this one of the most rewarding albums Thorn has made in a career full of great records and classic songs. She shows no signs of slowing down on Record; her voice and songs are as impressive and important as ever.
Website: http://splash.traceythorn.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tracey_thorn
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/traceythorn4ever/
Also:
Laura Snapes, Score: 8.0
• )↑Ξ→ https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/tracey-thorn-record/
By Rob Sheffield, March 1, 2018; Score: ***½
• )↑Ξ→ https://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/review-tracey-thorns-record-w517311
Dave Simpson, Fri 2 Mar 2018 10.30 GMT; Score: ****
• )↑Ξ→ The lyrical mix of emotion and wisdom is matched by the elegant dignity of the soundtrack, and producer Ewan Pearson places Thorn in the lineage of classy electronic torch singers from Alison Moyet to Marc Almond. In the wrong hands, Record’s subject matter could have been heavy going, but these songs are graceful, masterful, airy, bubbly and even a lot of fun. Dancefloor euphorically eulogises the artists that drew her to the disco, while it’s hard not to giggle when Babies playfully romps from contraception to conception to motherhood, and yelling “Get the fuck to bed now” with frustration at trying to get a child to sleep. (excerpt)
• )↑Ξ→ https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/mar/02/tracey-thorn-record-review-funny-graceful-songs-of-female-power
Label: https://www.mergerecords.com/record
_____________________________________________________________
• )↑Ξ→ On one of the defining albums of her 38~year career, the Everything But the Girl singer embraces her inner disco maven in pursuit of freedom from society’s ordained roles for women. (Laura Snapes)
• )↑Ξ→ The Everything But the Girl singer describes her new album as “nine feminist bangers”.
Born: September 26, 1962 in Brookmans Park, Hertfordshire, England
Location: London, UK
Album release: March 2, 2018
Recording Location: RAK, STrongroom, Suburban Home, World Of Apples
Record Label: Merge Records / Unmade
Duration: 35:49
Tracks:
01. Queen 4:17
02. Air (Feat. Shura) 3:03
03. Guitar 2:33
04. Smoke 4:11
05. Sister (Feat. Corinne Bailey Rae) 8:32
06. Go 4:01
07. Babies 2:34
08. Face 3:41
09. Dancefloor 2:57
• Edward Bishop Photography
• Stephen James Brown Engineer
• Matt Colton Mastering
• Martin Ditcham Percussion
• John Gilsenan Artwork
• Jack Hudson Assistant
• Matthew Johnson Engineer
• David Jones Assistant
• Jenny Lee Lindberg Bass
• Klas~Henrik Lindblad Mixing
• Jono Ma Guitar (Electric), Synthesizer
• Stella Mozgawa Drums, Hi Hat
• John Opstad Processing, Synthesizer, Violin Arrangement
• Ewan Pearson Divan, Drum Programming, Engineer, Mellotron, Mixing, Moog Synthesizer, Producer, Sequencers, String Samples, Syncussion, Synthesizer, Vocoder
• William Purton Assistant
• Corinne Bailey Rae Featured Artist, Vocals (Background)
• Marta Salogni Engineer
• Shura Featured Artist, Guitar (Electric), Juno, Vocals (Background)
• Jonny Solway Assistant
• Tracey Thorn Composer, Guitar (Electric), Piano, Synthesizer, Vocals
• Clare Wheeler Violin
Notes:
• CD: Packaged in a glossy four~panel wallet. Includes a 12~page booklet with full lyrics.
• LP: Black vinyl packaged in a printed color sleeve, all housed in a glossy gatefold jacket with full lyrics. Includes album download.
Description:
• “Nine feminist bangers,” Tracey Thorn joked when asked to describe her first solo album of entirely original material in seven years. Resplendent in Ewan Pearson’s unashamedly glittering electro~pop production, Record will be released on March 2, 2018.
• “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 this album 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. The album packs an eloquent punch. As ever, the personal has often been political in Tracey Thorn’s work. Across four decades, her 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 ‘80s band Marine Girls through sixteen years as one~half of articulate multimillion~selling duo Everything But The Girl, to her recent acclaimed memoirs and journalism.
AllMusic Review by Tim Sendra; Score: ****
• )↑Ξ→ Seeing the name Tracey Thorn on the cover of a record means there will be things within the grooves that one can count on: thoughtful lyrics that feel intensely personal while still being effortlessly relatable; her incredibly rich voice (which hasn’t aged one bit over the years); and songs that have a warmth baked into their core even when they are disco~ball glittery and perfectly produced, since she only uses collaborators fully attuned to her finer qualities. Released in 2018, Record is no exception to the rule, and even though Thorn throws in a twist to her formula here and there, it’s both of a piece with her previous work and a very worthwhile addition. Thorn worked with longtime collaborator Ewan Pearson, and the pair called on a cast of talented people to help make the record. Warpaint drummer Stella Mozgawa provides rock~solid beats on much of the album; her bandmate Jenny Lee Lindberg handles bass on a song; Jagwar Ma’s Jono Ma adds some guitar firepower to a couple tracks; Shura plays guitar and sings on a song; and Corinne Bailey Rae duets with Thorn on one of the album’s best songs, the slow~motion disco track “Sister.” The diverse cast of musicians is matched by the variety of songs and sounds found here as well. Calmly bubbling electropop (“Air”) bumps up against hooky new wave (“Guitar”), brooding piano ballads (“Smoke”) lead into expansive indie pop that sounds like a sincere Pulp (“Babies”), and deeply felt synth pop laments segue into sparkling disco~pop with fat basslines and rippling synths (“Dancefloor”), with the one constant being Thorn’s powerful singing. She fills the speakers with booming, beating emotion as she looks back at her life — sometimes fondly, sometimes not — talking about the music and people that shaped her along the way into the fully realized artist she is now. It’s not a delicate look back either; she spares not fools and doesn’t back down from a fight. Especially on “Sister,” which powerfully laments the lack of progress women have made against those who seek to put them down in various ways. This clear~eyed view of the past and the care put into the sound make this one of the most rewarding albums Thorn has made in a career full of great records and classic songs. She shows no signs of slowing down on Record; her voice and songs are as impressive and important as ever.
Website: http://splash.traceythorn.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tracey_thorn
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/traceythorn4ever/
Also:
Laura Snapes, Score: 8.0
• )↑Ξ→ https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/tracey-thorn-record/
By Rob Sheffield, March 1, 2018; Score: ***½
• )↑Ξ→ https://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/review-tracey-thorns-record-w517311
Dave Simpson, Fri 2 Mar 2018 10.30 GMT; Score: ****
• )↑Ξ→ The lyrical mix of emotion and wisdom is matched by the elegant dignity of the soundtrack, and producer Ewan Pearson places Thorn in the lineage of classy electronic torch singers from Alison Moyet to Marc Almond. In the wrong hands, Record’s subject matter could have been heavy going, but these songs are graceful, masterful, airy, bubbly and even a lot of fun. Dancefloor euphorically eulogises the artists that drew her to the disco, while it’s hard not to giggle when Babies playfully romps from contraception to conception to motherhood, and yelling “Get the fuck to bed now” with frustration at trying to get a child to sleep. (excerpt)
• )↑Ξ→ https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/mar/02/tracey-thorn-record-review-funny-graceful-songs-of-female-power
Label: https://www.mergerecords.com/record