Thea Gilmore

Rules for Jokers is the third CD from Thea Gilmore, a British singer/songwriter who is equally at home with delicate acoustic ballads and stinging, electric guitar-driven songs. Gilmore's lyrics are full of dense, poetic imagery and she delivers them with an urgency that wouldn't be out of place in a punk band. Even when she sings a melodically gentle song such as "Holding Your Hand" or "Take Me Home" with its suggestively swaying rhythm, her fierceness is never far from the surface. And when she lets loose and cranks up the volume on "Fever Beats" and "This Girl Is Taking Bets" the words flow from her with a bitter wit that recalls Elvis Costello in his younger, angrier days. Thea Gilmore wrote and recorded these songs when she was only 21 years old. If she sounds this good now, how much better will she be when she's had a chance to see more of the world? --Michael Simmons

• Apparition No. 12
• Holding Your Hand
• This Girl Is Taking Bets
• Saviours And All
• St. Luke's Summer
• The Things We Never Said
• Seen It All Before
• Benzedrine
• Movie Kisses
• Take Me Home
• Keep Up
• Saying Nothing
• Inverigo

• Ever Fallen In Love - Buzzcocks
• Hide ‘NÂ’ SeekinÂ’ – Paul Westerberg
• Bad Moon Rising – Credence Clearwater Revival
• DonÂ’t Come Close – The Ramones
• The Old Laughing Lady – Neil Young
• Crazy Love – Van Morrison
• Sitting In Limbo – Jimmy Cliff
• Josefs Train – Nigel Stonier
• Brother Can You Spare Me A Dime – (Gorney/Harburg)
• When IÂ’m Gone – Phil Ochs

Gilmore sings in a distinctly Los Angeles accent about consistently British concerns--a combination of her upbringing in Oxford and a somewhat oppressive infatuation with such American angst peddlers as Sarah McLachlan and Shelby Lynne. While The Lipstick Conspiracies, her second album, isn't exactly bad, it never quite transcends its influences. Gilmore's songs are built to a standard country-rock template, occasionally decorated with distorted effects, and her confident voice lends adequate service to her words. Unfortunately, these lyrics, while impressively wordy--it also seems safe to assume that her record collection contains a good few dog-eared Elvis Costello albums--tend toward either the trite or the opaque. --Andrew Mueller

• Generation Y?
• The Resurrection Men
• See If They Applaud
• Forgotten
• Exit Route
• My Own Private Riot
• Edge Of My Seat
• Bulletin Britain
• Night Driving
• Lidocaine Baby
• Land Of The Free
• My Beautiful Defence

Hailed as one the finest British singer-songwriters of recent times, Thea Gilmore makes serious efforts to earn the accolade on Avalanche. Alternating between Dylan-style political rants, oceanic folk and idiosyncratic oddities recalling Tom Waits, she purposefully proves that, musically and lyrically, she is worthy of your closest attention. In herself, she certainly believes she's fighting the good fight. With its muted cello and tinkling music box, the title track is both a virulently accusing state-of-the-nation address and a maudlin lament for a young generation that refuses to get involved. This is followed immediately by "Mainstream", where Gilmore kicks out at low-grade celebrity and demands that people live a life less ordinary. Later, "Heads Will Roll" directly threatens those who would oppose her. These three tracks exhibit an impressive turn of phrase that's consistent throughout the album, from the soft, dreamy "Pirate Moon", through the acoustic, hopeful "The Cracks" to the perverse, Waits-ish "Razor Valentine". Indeed, the only real problem here (other than the occasional over-reverence towards her sources, forgivable in one so young) is a lack of variety in her vocal delivery. Well-written and heartfelt tracks like "Mainstream" and "Heads Will Roll" require a more expressive, even dramatic performance than Gilmore is for now prepared to give. Hopefully, time will lend her the necessary confidence. --Dominic Wills

• Rags And Bones
• Have You Heard
• Juliet (Keep That In Mind)
• Avalanche
• Mainstream
• Pirate Moon
• Apparition #13
• Razor Valentine
• God Knows
• Heads Will Roll
• Eight Months
• The Cracks

• Old Soul
• Concrete
• You And Frank Sinatra
• Rosie
• The Lower Road
• If You Miss Me At The Back Of The Bus
• Icarus Wind
• Have You Heard
• Juliet
• Everybody's Numb
• This Girl Is Taking Bets
• My Own Private Riot
• Rags And Bones
• When I Get Back To The Shore
• Inverigo

• Sol Invictus
• Thea Gilmore's Midwinter Toast
• Cold Coming
• That'll be Christmas
• Listen the Snow is Falling
• Drunken Angel
• St Stephen's Day Murders
• December in New York
• Book of Christmas
• Old December
• That'll be Christmas (bonus track)

Prolific British singer-songwriter Thea Gilmore returns with her eighth album in ten years, and it will come as no surprise to those that have followed her work since she was a teenager that Liejacker is as dense with natural smoky jazz mannerisms, fine folk details and stark soul-searching lyrics as anything she’s committed to record before. The humble consistency across these 12 original tracks, and one slightly obtuse but perfectly infectious country cover of Dead Or Alive’s "You Spin Me Round Like A Record", is particularly noticeable, surpassing even that of 2005’s fêted major label debut Harpo’s Ghost. This record is much softer, less glossy, and knowingly less bold--suiting her reacquaintance with an independent label. Yet it still tugs as intently at your heartstrings with the willing, deeply set melodies evident through "Old Soul", an effective, wanting duet with Dave McCabe of The Zutons, the waltzing autumnal "Dance In New York" and woozy baritone jazz of "Wrong Side". In Liejacker she has crafted a record that fairly closely peers Kathryn Williams’ stirring Brit folk, or Beth Orton with weights around her dainty ankles. But it especially thrives on an often astonishingly powerful voice, exhibiting great range and echoing established talents like Annie Lennox or Alison Moyet. Fame surely can’t evade her forever, as this once again reminds that she leaves lightweights Katie Melua and Norah Jones in the shade every time. --James Berry

• Ever Fallen In Love
• Hide 'N' Seekin
• Bad Moon Rising
• Don't Come Close
• The Old Laughing lady
• Crazy Love
• Sitting In Limbo
• Josef Strain
• Brother Can You Spare A Dime
• When I'm Gone

THEA GILMORE Harpos Ghost (2006 UK 11-track CD album - this is the follow-up to her critically acclaimed 2003 album Avalanche Thea has been described as "a hellraiser with a voice like honey" and during her teenage daze was being compared toeveryone from Joni Mitchell to Ryan Adams and Tom Waits; and includes the single Cheap Tricks which has a chorus you can physically wave sticks at plus Hidden Track Play Until The Bottles Gone)

• The Gambler - Nigel Stonier, Thea Gilmore
• Everybody's Numb
• Red White And Black
• Call Me Your Darling - Nigel Stonier, Thea Gilmore
• We Built A Monster
• The List
• Going Down
• Whistle And Steam
• Cheap Tricks
• Contessa
• Slow Journey II - Thea Gilmore

• Down To Nowhere
• When Did You Get So Safe
• Tear It All Down
• The Dirt Is Your Lover Now
• I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine
• Lip Reading
• Heart String Blues
• Mud On My Shoes
• Water To Sky
• And Well Done
• Cover Me
• I'm Not Down
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