With four albums in almost as many years, it is safe to assume that writer’s block is not a problem for Thea Gilmore. And it’s not just a case of quantity: the 24-year-old Oxford woman’s quality control is impeccable making her one of the most astute and eloquent lyricists this writer has come across in some time.
One fairly major quibble, however, is that sometimes the arrangements don’t match the naked emotion of the words. ‘Apparition #13’ is by far the worst offender in this regard, Thea’s potent imagery blunted by syrupy guitar. When the class of her songs is allowed to shine through, though, the results are often stunning. Opener ‘Rags And Bones’ is a powerful piece of writing, with a spitting mad Gilmore waxing metaphysical about “weapons of blood and piss and guilt”
Avalanche is filled with enough quotable couplets for a year’s worth of album reviews as Thea wields her words on such thorny topics as religion (‘Have You Heard’), thinking for yourself (‘Mainstream’), love (‘God Knows’) and glorious, magnificent hope (‘The Cracks’). My personal favourite comes from the gorgeous ‘Juliet (Keep That In Mind)’: “You remind me of some arthouse black and white I saw, they’d coloured in with chalk/ And you are wise beyond your years, or are you all talk?”
Avalanche is a good, occasionally great album that could have been amazing. If Thea can team up with a producer brave enough to let her words do the talking and allow the songs to breathe, she has the potential to deliver a bona fide classic.