Emma-Jean Thackray
Weirdo
Brownswood/Parlophone
Listen Below
Emma-Jean Thackray’s second album Weirdo wears its heart on its (album) sleeve. A glance down the track list at the song titles will tell you what stories she wants to tell—there’s “Let Me Sleep,” “Please Leave Me Alone” and “Wanna Die” just for starters. This overwhelming sense of grief or loss is rooted in the sudden passing of her long-term partner in 2023, just after she began the process of writing and recording her second album.
Though she may live in London and, ostensibly, play jazz music, she finds no place amongst the oft-written-about scene that has produced a generation of jazz musicians that have found international acclaim. Not that her music isn’t acclaimed (her 2021 debut Yellow won a Jazz FM award and was top of the UK jazz chart), but rather that she doesn’t feel that she “fits” in the capital’s scene, despite having studied and played alongside artists like Nubya Garcia and Moses Boyd.
In a recent interview with The Guardian, Thackray spoke at length about feeling like an outsider for most of her life. After a recent realization and diagnosis of autism and ADHD, she is now aiming to reclaim the word “weirdo” that was hurled at her during her younger years—hence the title of the new album.
The cover art is revealing too—both literally and metaphorically. In a break from all of her previous releases, it actually shows the artist physically, reclined in a bubble bath with just her head and left leg visible, with the latter draped over the side of the bath. But there, also, rather menacingly sits a toaster plugged in and ready to tumble, if she chooses, into the water that envelops her. It is pretty clear that this album represents a sink/swim moment of monumental scale for Emma-Jean Thackray.
Those themes, and the album itself, are best summed up by a lyric from “Black Hole” where she repeatedly sings “I’m in a black hole of despair, only the beat can pull me out.”
Listen to the Album:
This manifesto (groove-inspired release from the depths of despair) is realized through a range of different styles and tempos of funk. There are the lighter, jazzier sounds of “Where’d You Go,” the nasty, scuzzy P-Funk feel of “Maybe Nowhere,” the dance-inflected “What Is The Point” and pretty much everything else in between.
What makes the album especially interesting is the way in which the lyrics and music relate to each other. The album could be characterized as jazz-funk which is most often an uplifting, positive sound but the lyrics sit in harsh opposition to this sound. “Wanna Die” is the prime example of this—the music is irrepressibly buoyant but the lyrics offer an unexpected turn towards darkness (“I don’t wanna die, except for all the times that I do”).
Nestled around the center of the album are two short songs that, on the surface, seem almost flippant and unnecessary but they do a really important job. Anyone who has lost a close loved one will tell you that “normal” life has a way of inserting its mundanity into your grief, however deeply mired you are in it. So, the Thundercat-esque flight of fancy “Tofu” fulfils that role, whilst “Fried Rice” sounds inconsequential but reveals the ridiculous bargains we make with ourselves, when consumed with pain (“I wanna make fried rice / I don’t wanna go outside / I just wanna eat rice / Maybe then I’ll be alright”).
If I have one minor gripe, I’d say the latter stages of the album don’t appear as vital as the rest, despite it ending with a hint of hope on “Thank You For The Day.” It meanders to a close and although that may reflect the recovery processes of grief, it ends what is a wonderful project with a slight sense of dissatisfaction.
Beyond the impact of the music and lyrics, though, it would be a total oversight to not talk about the panoply of Thackray’s talents. Joan Armatrading has bemoaned the fact that male multi-instrumentalists/producers are bestowed with much greater accolades than female ones, so it would be remiss not to discuss sleeve notes and credits here. Thackray plays every single instrument on this project—drums, keys, bass, guitars AND the trumpet and other brass that she is more readily associated with. This would be astonishing on its own but allied to her songwriting, production and engineering work, it is frankly mind-blowing.
Make no mistake, this is a brilliant album crafted by a musical talent of gargantuan proportions and with all things being fair and equal, it should sell by the truck load and allow her to become more widely loved and lauded. It is insane that she’s “just paying some guys mortgage anyway” (as she memorably sings on “Maybe Nowhere”) and hopefully the success of this album will make her beholden to landlords no more.
Notable Tracks: “Black Hole” | “Let Me Sleep” | “Maybe Nowhere” | “Save Me” | “Stay”
LISTEN: