Thalia Zedek -
Via (Thrill
Jockey Records)
CD/LP/DL
19 March 2013
CD/LP/DL
19 March 2013
Five years
since her last album, Liars and Prayers, Thalia Zedek is still recording and
performing into her fourth decade of music.
Her impressive back catalogue includes leading both Uzi and Live Skull
and latterly being a member of Come, and, she continues to be revered in many
quarters as a pioneer in the world of female independent rock.
Walk Away
is a good solid opener to Via. Nice
guitar work which builds slowly and slowly with a chorus that isn’t
particularly easy to spot but is curiously catchy. Ex-Come drummer Daniel Coughlin plays some
great percussion as the track builds with quite a lot of promise. It’s solid, and instrumentally it’s a fine
track which gets pretty lively towards the end, but, to be honest, the vocals are
a struggle on the album and a little too Tom Petty esque and safe.
Into second
track Winning Hand and the tempo is down.
Again the formula seems to be American MOR and if you’re a fan of that,
and I’m aware it’s popular, then you’ll probably love this as I’m sure there’s
an audience for this kind of thing. Unfortunately,
I’m not part of the crowd.
I gave the
album two full listens and then a part third and whilst there’s no doubting the
great musicianship here, the songs continue do lack good choruses and I found
myself listening to the same thing over and over again.
Track four,
He Said, has the line “I’ve seen it all before” and therein lies the
problem. The album lacks any real
originality and fails to deliver anything new.
It’s a shame, as with Thalia’s track record, you’d maybe expect
something better and a little more inspiring.
As it is, Via is an album which will undoubtedly please many fans of the
MOR/Country genre, but, it will probably also disappoint as many.
5/10
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