Rating: 5/5
Review:
Another fine album from Thea Gilmore
Small World Turning is yet another very fine album from Thea Gilmore.
It’s perhaps not one of her very greatest (in which class I’d
put the masterpieces which are Avalanche, Murphy’s Heart and
Regardless) but it’s still real quality.
There’s the mix
we’ve come to expect of sharp political comment (The Revisionist is
an excellent example) and lovely, moving songs about love and human
relations. All the Thea trademarks are still here: great and
sometimes astonishingly brilliant lyrics; beautiful melodies,
sometimes with with slightly unusual chord sequences; sequences of
extraordinary images… It’s great stuff.
I have to say that
occasionally the trademarks spill over slightly into the sense that
I’ve heard this before. Glory, for example, bears quite a strong
musical and structural resemblance to Heads Will Roll, with
the “Amens” from Automatic Blue thrown in. That’s fine with me
– they’re two great songs – but Thea Gilmore is such an
original, innovative songwriter that it’s a bit of a surprise.
This small caveat
aside, it’s a really good album from one of our finest songwriters
and warmy recommended.
