Album Review: Thao & The Get Down Stay Down - We The Common

At 1:08 on opening song We The Common (For Valerie Bolden), when the chorus kicks in, you can't help but do a little mid-step click of the heels. It's cute, it's fun and it's catchy as buggery. But that's what you get when you combine banjo, whistling, and some serious ooh-oohs, and it shouldn't be dismissed.

The rest of We The Common, the fifth album from San Francisco-via-Virginia's Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, is a mixed bag. From the shout out loud refrain of City to the Fiona Apple-inspired We Don't Call and the balladry of Clouds For Brains, the 12 songs cover a lot of ground. Despite the obvious participation of plenty of musicians across the record, the band only consists of two core members, the diminutive Thao Nguyen out front and Adam Thompson, who takes charge of most of the instrumentation. It's an interesting sound that Thao & TGDSD bring to the album. Fans of the Aussie TV show Offspring would be familiar with Thao, who supplied the theme music to that show in 2009, but despite the band's significant back catalogue (that stretches back to 2003), Thao & TGDSD haven't had a huge impact locally.

Whether or not We The Common will change that remains to be seen. There are some alien elements here, sure, but there are some great pop moments like closers Human Heart and Age Of Ice that will have listeners recalling Rilo Kiley and The New Pornographers.

For established fans, We The Common will surely be, pardon the pun, music to their ears. After a four-year hiatus, Thao & TGDSD are back, and they're here to have some fun.