My love for Tracey Thorn goes way back. From those early beautifully mellow ballads she did with Everything But The Girl, to the ultra-cool dance tracks such as ‘Missing’. and ‘Walking Wounded’. The thing that has always astonished me about her, is her ability to portray so much raw emotion in her vocals, without even raising her voice. She makes it all seem so effortless. She is also undoubtably the queen of cool. Regardless of whether she is is singing her own material, or interpreting other people’s songs, she always manages to make it sound truly unique. Her last full length album was her festive collection of songs ‘Tinsel and Lights’ (an album that I listen to twelve months a year, not just in December). Christmas songs aren’t exactly famous for being credible. But guess what? She also made the concept of the festive album seem cool too.
There have been a couple of single releases since then, but nothing resembling a full length album. Her latest project is an eight track mini-album that features new music from Carol Morley’s new film ‘The Falling’. Clocking in at around just twenty minutes, this eight track collection is not the new long player we’ve been waiting for. It may be short, it is however perfectly formed. The atmospheric sound of Thorn’s voice certainly lends itself perfectly to a movie soundtrack. There are only a couple of tracks that make it over the two minute mark, one of those being album opener ‘Follow me down’. It is an interesting sounding song, that draws you in from the offset. Undoubtable of of the best songs of the year so far.
The album keeps away from the electronic sound that Tracey Thorn has dabbled with in the past. It is essentially an acoustic album, and is the nearest she has come to the sound of those early EBTG songs. Whichever direction she moves in, it seems impossible for her to make a step wrong. The album may not the the long player that fans have been waiting for, but it’s certainly a fantastic way to keep us entertained until then. If you want something longer, then I have a great tip for you. Listen to it on loop. It has worked for me, I’ve been doing it all week.
If you want to know more about Tracey Thorn, then I recommend reading her autobiography ‘Bedsit Disco Queen.’ Or you can follow her on Twitter twitter.com/tracey_thorn
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