小佧
Rosie Thomas has a delicate, weird little voice and it's never really been the forefront of her music until now. The preteen Joni Mitchell/ choirgirl strains of her vocal tones are something to be played up, not down; thankfully she's finally realized that on her Nettwerk debut and fourth solo album. The album also includes studio patter tacked onto the beginning or ending of the songs, awesome little snippets of Rosie's famous comedic wit. Such material works in the album's favor, grounding the material by showing that Thomas is not some precious freak-folker. It also gives a glimpse of her live performances, where Rosie sometimes performs as a neurotic woman in a neck brace hopelessly in love with Leo DiCaprio named Sheila (really). The record's title likely refers to the batch of famous friends who act as accompanying musicians throughout. Thomas's core of musical compatriots in vaguely Christian dreamy emo folk-rock is here expanded from Pacific Northwesterners Damien Jurado, David Bazan, and Jeremy Enigk to include New Yorker Sufjan Stevens. Sufjan and Rosie duet beautifully and breathlessly on their cover of R.E.M.'s "The One I Love." This sparse and Beatle-length album (ten songs, just over half an hour) is her strongest by far. Huzzah!