Thea Gilmore - The Counterweight

Rating: 5/5

Review:
A very fine album from Thea Gilmore

Thea Gilmore is one of the finest of the current excellent crop of singer-songwriters in my view, and a new album from her is a real event for me, especially after four long years waiting for new material.  This is another really good one.

Thea has produced a collection of songs with her trademark mixture of biting social comment and open-hearted compassion and humanity.   She has a real gift for a great melody and brilliant lyrics and although not every song here is outstanding they're all good, with several absolute gems, like the fabulous Rise, for example.  The real heart of the album lies, I think, in The War, a superb, very moving song which is a tribute to Jo Cox, the murdered MP. It includes the lines,

"In the time of hate, throw down the counterweight

Tear out that fang and state

You're worthy of more"

Perfect.  There's nothing I can add to that.

There's plenty of bite elsewhere about the scramble for empty fame, the falseness of the social media life and so on, often with lyrics which are, as always, pithy and original like (from Leatherette),

"God loves a trier, fame loves a liar

You've got to use and abuse to scrape the sky;

Haven't made it yet…"

And often ingeniously witty, as in Another Damn Love Song:

"It's a case of synesthesia,

I'd do anything to please ya

Every colour leads me back to you."

Thea's voice is still simply wonderful and she sings with real commitment and sincerity.  The arrangements and production are musically intelligent and very effective, and the band is excellent. 

There are a number of noticeable lyrical references to Avalanche here.  I'm not sure The Counterweight is the absolute masterpiece that Avalanche remains, but it's still a very, very fine album from one of the very best we have.  I can recommend it very warmly indeed.