I Didn’t Think I Could Love Thao Any More, But Here We Are

by Katie

Thao and the Get Down Stay Down’s We Brave Bee Stings and All was one of the best albums I heard way, way, way too late in 2008. Her sleepy voice haunted her sparse, honky tonk tunes and made me feel warm and fuzzy all over. I mentioned her a lot on these pages. Could her third album, Know Better Learn Faster, possibly match what I’d worked up for it in my mind over the past ten months?

In a word: YES.

If Bee Stings was relaxing, reclining, Know Better is barely perched on the edge of its seat. The melodies remain delightfully asymmetrical, but the beats are driving and the guitar riffs more jagged. We hear more aggressive guitar picking from Thao’s deft fingers. She steps most noticeably out of her vocal comfort range on “Body,” capably adopting an old-style emo wail to ask “What am I, just a body in your bed?” amid threats and professions of love.

I’ve read that this is a “breakup album” which I’ll believe, because Thao draws heavily on themes of trying to change, brutality, a lack of physical intimacy, and retrospect. (It also explains the album art, which depicts Thao swinging at a heart-shaped pinata as a crowd around her cheers. It’s a metaphor! I am so smart! S-M-R-T!) But it’s clearly cathartic, with the ominous tension of opener “The Clap” bubbling up every few songs, settling into melancholy on “The Give” or “But What of the Strangers,” and ultimately sighing in relief into the breezy chorus by the final track, “Easy.”

You’ll hear hints of outside influences, like Weezer and the Cardigans, but the overall sound is the Thao that I love so. Buy this album, and love it. Ten thumbs up.