A Man Alive
Thao Nguyen has found her idiosyncratic match in producer Merrill Garbus (Tune-Yards), who helps bring out the band\'s weirdest, wildest pop inclinations. *A Man Alive* giddily jumps from crackling staccato funk (\"The Evening\") and reverb-soaked garage-punk (\"Nobody Dies\") to slow-burning psych-folk (\"Millionaire\") and fuzzy, experimental hip-hop (\"Meticulous Bird\"). It\'s all doused in warped synths and effects, but every sound serves its purpose—like the rumbling bass of \"Astonished Man\" reflecting the weight of the singer\'s apprehension toward her relationship with her dad, or the loops of \"Slash/Burn\" circling like a nagging memory.
Produced by Merrill Garbus, aka tUnE-yArDs, Thao Nguyen's fourth album, A Man Alive!, is her most rhythmically robust and gleefully discordant release to date.
After a decade on the scene, Thao Nguyen makes a striking departure.
The harrowing blues guitar and kick drum at the start of album opener "Astonished Man" hint that A Man Alive—the fourth full-length album from San Francisco's Thao & The Get Down Stay Down—won't be a far cry from frontwoman Thao Nguyen's (Thao) fantastic indie folk-rooted discography. But Thao and producer Merrill Garbus (of Oakland's tUnE-yArDs) shatter that notion in 30 seconds when the track takes an electronic turn, before a tambourine comes in, followed by loops and a larger conglomerate of sounds than we've ever heard on a Thao album.
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Thao & the Get Down Stay Down have returned with A Man Alive, a brilliant and cohesive album that surpasses expectation. It's an elaborate s...
Thao Nguyen returns with an expertly crafted album filled with references to pain and loss.