Album Review: Tracy McNeil And The GoodLife - Thieves

Tracy McNeil showed flashes of brilliance on her previous album Nobody Ever Leaves and she's taken that one step further with a more consistent set of songs on Thieves.

There's a laidback smooth quality to McNeil's music that recalls US west coast FM rock of the late '70s, with warm harmonies, swaying guitar lines and a general uplifting quality, even in her darker moments. CSNY and Fleetwood Mac fuse in a gentle Americana sound as McNeil sings of love, heartache, loss and distance via styles that range from the crazily catchy Paradise to the atmospheric epic White Rose. There's a new sense of maturity and confidence to McNeil's writing that finds her expanding her songwriting palette with rewarding results.