Thea Gilmore
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Recorded Delivery
Punchy female singer/songwriter with acoustic and electric live album.
Culled from performances throughout last year, including Glastonbury and a set at London's Bloomsbury Theatre, this album shows Thea Gilmore's particular magic as a live artist. Part One's 'Acoustic' section is the strongest selections with Gilmore's warm bluesy voice ringing out unadorned. Key songs include the wonderful, lilting Old Soul from last years Liejacker album, and Concrete, where she paints a vivd picture of herself as bindweed "pushing through the edges of the concrete." Gilmore is a very visceral singer, but some of the intensity and focus gets lost in pretty conventional rock arrangements - as evidenced by Part Two's 'Electric' section. Here, her lyrical wordplay comes to the fore with rockabilly jaunts such as This Girl Is Taking Bets, and though these tracks move with a propulsive force, they have less of Part One's melodic beauty and intimacy.

Lucy O'Brien