Thea Gilmore - Angels In The Abattoir Update (July 2009)

So last week I signed up to Angels In The Abattoir, the new music project from Thea Gilmore. I wait in anticipation for my hand-written lyrics of God Knows from Avalanche but I have it on good authority that writer’s cramp is a serious and possible risk so I will wait. Patiently. Patience is, after all, a virtue.

This month, I got an email. It was titled: I Am Breaking My Promise. This is my first email after signing up and immediately my heart sank. It could not have fallen at the first hurdle? Surely not…

But I needn’t have worried. Of course it was a little joke, a jape, a ruse, if you will. In Thea’s own words: I am not sending you a new unreleased track. I am sending you two!!!

On hearing this glorious news I actually got up out of my office chair and did ‘the happy dance’ (I’ll spare you the details). Two songs!!! Two songs never heard before. I resisted the temptation to download and waited until I got home so I could listen uninterrupted and in the comfort of my own cerebral contentment.

Anyway, here are my reviews:

Think Of Me

“I played it live, as you hear it, at Orchard, a small studio just down the road from where I live. Hearing it back I figured there was no need whatsoever for adornment, production, whatever. The story is told, the song is what it is. Hope you like it.”

The live performance of Think Of Me is truly wonderful. A great vocal with such a simple arrangement of guitar and unhinged sadness.

Oh Come On

“Anyone ever heard Steve Earle's "Christmas In Washington" where he tries to invoke the ghosts of Woody Guthrie and Joe Hill, and wonders how those folk singers and activists would react to the icy apathy of today’s political manoeuvres? Well I was watching Question Time and wondering the very same thing. And I reached for the guitar and this song appeared. It kind of arrived almost in the style of the old talking blues style, and I saw no reason to fight it.”

This is much more upbeat. Thea writes songs in two distinct styles and this definitely fits into the slightly kooky, ballsy, pseudo-country confrontational piece with political overtones. It’s not quite in the same league as say Have You Heard or When I Get Back To Shore but it is more than just a bit of throw away fun.

Good stuff. Can't wait for next month.

More here.