Let�s face it, these days pretty much any female singer-songwriter with acoustic backing is going to be compared to Cat Power. It�s as if Cat Power�s Chan Marshall was the first woman to pick up a guitar and sing along. ***image1***
Fair or not, the comparison can be made when listening to Thao�s We Brave Bee Stings and All. The voice is a dead ringer for Marshall�s, so much so that the similarity is impossible to ignore. But the comparison ends there. Thao�s playfulness and instrumentation give her music a depth of its own. Sometimes it�s catchy piano riffs and other times it�s spastic banjos plowing along as Thao�s voice skips to keep up.
Her songs are filled with the depth of high school poetry, their subjects ranging from heartbreak to problems with geography to trouble at summer camp, but her mature voice gives these silly little problems a serious outlet. Thao pulls deep feelings from the most trite subjects and makes it really, really important. It�s the kind of emotion that 17-year-old girls spend the rest of their lives trying to get past.
We Brave Bee Stings and All is the perfect name for an album that is bold in its silliness and brings real emotions to the table. This grown-up sensibility mixed with youthful innocence makes Thao stand out on her own. Once the word gets out, she�s the one others will be compared to.
THAO
We Brave Bee Stings and All
Kill Rock Stars
Fair or not, the comparison can be made when listening to Thao�s We Brave Bee Stings and All. The voice is a dead ringer for Marshall�s, so much so that the similarity is impossible to ignore. But the comparison ends there. Thao�s playfulness and instrumentation give her music a depth of its own. Sometimes it�s catchy piano riffs and other times it�s spastic banjos plowing along as Thao�s voice skips to keep up.
Her songs are filled with the depth of high school poetry, their subjects ranging from heartbreak to problems with geography to trouble at summer camp, but her mature voice gives these silly little problems a serious outlet. Thao pulls deep feelings from the most trite subjects and makes it really, really important. It�s the kind of emotion that 17-year-old girls spend the rest of their lives trying to get past.
We Brave Bee Stings and All is the perfect name for an album that is bold in its silliness and brings real emotions to the table. This grown-up sensibility mixed with youthful innocence makes Thao stand out on her own. Once the word gets out, she�s the one others will be compared to.
THAO
We Brave Bee Stings and All
Kill Rock Stars
