Rosie Thomas’ toss to slight fame was when she partnered with Damien Jurado for the single “Parking Lot.” Admittedly, I have never heard from Thomas after that aside from some Sufjan Stevens videos online. It was my lack to not look much into her music aside from occasionally hearing her work in When We Were Small and These Friends of Mine. Though bereft of album-by-album familiarity, her name pretty much stayed within my musical satellite, whatever that means.
My full experience of Thomas’ comes across her latest record With Love. A collection of ten, heartfelt songs that listeners can either hate or love depending on how they would perceive Thomas’ generosity to amour. It can be taken as being honest to what the album gravitates to or going overboard with its theme.
The kickstarter “Where Was I” shows off Thomas’ delicate voice, child-like yet embittered, as she shuffles memories and wistfulness that works similarly in another track “In Time,” two of the best songs in With Love. Cunningly placed to sandwich the lovesick “Over the Moon,” the two aforementioned tracks are the couple in the set which do not make the sappiness go bit over the top.
The most engaging track in the bunch is “A Really Long Year,” a nicely-written narrative that recalls Thomas’ thoughts about her public wedding marred with figures in her life- parents, brother, grandpa- and how she saw “somehow over the rainbow dreams will come true.” (The lyrics get forgivable once played from the start!)
Needless to say, With Love is created if you can bare hearing the title word sung more than ten times and not feel it crawling in your skin. While the record seems like a jar filled of honey to the brim, it has its bitter flavor bottoming in the pit. Few of the tracks are blessed with this, Thomas doing it personal and with a dash of melancholia, but the rest of it are just too saccharine sweet for my taste. It could work in a perspective that With Love is just paying its dues to its intention, that is to speak of the feeling in volumes, but a juicy bit of different taste could also do wonders.
Filed under: Album Commentaries, Album Review Rosie Thomas With Love, Review of Rosie Thomas With Love, Rosie Thomas With Love Album Review, Rosie Thomas With Love Review, Rosie Thomas With Love Sufjan Stevens
July 25, 2012 • 11:21 pm 0
THEIR LIST: Best of 2012, So Far
Based on experience, it is quite a task catching up with all the records coming out. It is a hit-or-miss as we scour through these releases and find the gems of which blogs adorn with high-praises as Best New Music or Best New Album, whatever they call it. Thinking of great amount of time listening to each hottest record of the moment, the potentiality of -not-my-things always prevails when it comes to really getting the music we like.
Last year I came up with this idea of making an aggregated list of all the lists published by numerous blogs all over the Internet with some of my favorite reads added in. Out of intention of creating a one paged-entry that sums up their choices, I hope a reader can make out the standouts by “leafing” through this list. Few weeks late but still a one-year old tradition is up!
RCRD LBL: 2012 Halftime by Carter Maness
Beach House – Bloom
Lee Hazlewood – LIH Years (Reissue)
The Walkmen – Heaven
Mount Eerie – Clear Moon
Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do
THE LINE OF BEST FIT: Favorite Albums of 2012 So Far (This particular list is really messy and random. It was hard choosing the best five out of it. So I opted to get the first five out the two part entries LOBF has published.)
First Aid Kit – The Lion’s Roar
Errors – Have Some Faith In Magic
Kathleen Edwards – Voyageur
Cloud Nothings – Attack on Memory
Sharon van Etten – Tramp
MUSIC FOR KIDS WHO CAN’T READ: Best Album of 2012 So Far (First five, too.)
First Aid Kit – The Lion’s Roar
Hospitality – Hospitality
Shearwater – Animal Joy
Grimes – Visions
Andrew Bird – Break It Yourself
MIND EQUALS BLOWN: Top Albums of 2012 (So Far)
John Mayer – Born And Raised
Gojira – L’enfant Sauvage
Cherri Bomb – This Is The End Of Control
No Trigger – Tycoon
Schoolboy Q – Habits & Contradictions
STEREOGUM: from Top 25 Albums of the Year
1. Cloud Nothings- Attack on Memory
2. The Walkmen- Heaven
3. Chairlift- Something
4. Japandroids- Celebration
5. Beach House- Bloom
BANDCAMP HUNTER: Other Bandcamp favourites from the first half of 2012
Secret Mountains- Winter Sessions
New Myths- New Myths EP
Gunn-Truscinski Duo- Ocean Parkway
eyes, wings and many other things- Napalm Beach
Lower Plenty- Hard Rubbish
Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under: Album Commentaries, 2012 Best Albums So Far, Best Albums of 2012, Best Albums of 2012 So Far, Best Records of 2012