Some albums are for the car. This one is for the night you finally clean out the closet after a breakup and realize you are kind of happy. Show Me, the sixth studio album from Thao Nguyen, recording as THAO, is out October 30 on Kill Rock Stars.
Nguyen calls it "a real-time record-keeping of my life evolving into love the last few years." In the label's notes she is blunt about what changed: a divorce, a move, and the decision to stop "masking fear as indifference." She describes wanting "the kind of love I've always wanted and never really thought I could have, because it required terrifying things like staying." That is the emotional spine of the record, and it is why it lands so hard if you have ever rebuilt your life from the studs.
What it sounds like
Show Me is an 11-song suite produced by Nguyen with Merrill Garbus of Tune-Yards, Nate Brenner and Eli Crews, and The Linda Lindas, Tune-Yards and Neko Case all contribute. If you loved Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, expect the same rhythmic, slightly off-kilter guitar and very direct lyrics, with more tenderness this time. Nguyen says some songs are "snapshots of moments I've never felt before," and others are about "what I want to shear, what I want to move toward," which is a pretty good description of most women's late thirties.
Where to start
The record opens with "Fossils" and closes with the title track, with "Sick of the Times," "Take It Easy," "Jeans/Genes" and "How I Needed You" in between. If you only have ten minutes, play "How I Needed You" and then "Show Me," and you will know whether this is your album. Then go back to "Fossils" and let it run in order, because it is sequenced like a diary.
Vinyl and CD
Kill Rock Stars is selling a limited-edition eco graphite vinyl pressing for $26 with a printed inner sleeve of photos and credits, and a CD for $16, both shipping around the release date. The LP is the one to give a friend who is in the middle of her own fresh start.
Who will love it
Anyone who has started over in her thirties or forties, and anyone who keeps Waxahatchee, Mitski or Neko Case in heavy rotation. Put it on for a long walk or a slow Sunday, not a party. It rewards attention.
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