Our first time covering this prolific British singer-songwriter.
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[5.14]
Iain Mew: The rollicking folk-rock sound and the high notes like the twist of a knife both remind me of Tom McRae, a contemporary I liked a lot whose career trajectory has gone the opposite way to Gilmore’s. She gets a better swing going, too, and some great lines to go with it — I love the imagery of the “loyalty card at last chance saloon.” I just wish that the chorus and its sentiment wasn’t so underwhelming.
[6]
Alfred Soto: “Don’t need their idea of heaven” over rolling strings and guitars would sound better from a voice that didn’t evoke Eleanor Friedberger at a senior citizens dinner.
[4]
Micha Cavaseno: Sounds like an attempt at adult contemporary pop ballads in a Brian Setzer style which, hey, points for trying.
[2]
Jonathan Bogart: Neko Case without the bite is something to be.
[6]
Thomas Inskeep: Reminiscent of ’80s UK singer-songwriters like Billy Bragg, Tanita Tikaram, Julia Fordham; there’s even a little bit of Richard Thompson in her pen. Gilmore is well-meaning and boring. The production on “Live Out Loud” is fairly generic, and the song itself doesn’t go much of anywhere.
[4]
Megan Harrington: Objectively, there’s little to dislike about Thea Gilmore. After two decades, her sound is incredibly smooth. There’s not a note, not a horn chart, not a handclap out of place. The production is rich and expensive sounding, but at the same time, you can hear exactly how she’d play this for a canned studio promo clip. The worst criticism you can level at “Live Out Loud” is that it’s uninspired, which hardly matters because it sounds good.
[8]
Katherine St Asaph: Stop me if you recognize this: The moment you recommend an artist you love to a friend (or more), start playing one of their songs, and hear nothing but flaws, noodling, uncharitable contexts. It happened last night with Stereolab. It’s happening again with Thea Gilmore, whom I was introduced to as a artisan singer-songwriter never given her due from the press and am now hearing as a BBC Radio 2 staple who records tracks with titles like “Live Out Loud.” The truth’s probably in the middle: comfort-food rock.
[6]