Rosie Thomas
Issue #25
If Songs Could Be Held (Sub Pop)
By Audra Schroeder
Published: September 1st, 2005 | 4:08pm
If songs could be held, singer songwriter Rosie Thomas would pick them up mama bird-style and then toss them out of the nest to see if they could fly. The one-time stand up comedienne has come a long way since her 2002 debut, When We Were Small, on which she introduced the listener to an alter ego named Sheila Saputo — a bespectacled pizza delivery woman who wears a neck brace. Her doppelganger represented the quirky side of Thomas, one that wasn't afraid to be goofy or inarticulate or clumsy. Of course, this was the complete opposite of her folkie dark side, the one that knew the lyrics to Joni Mitchell's Both Sides Now by heart.
The infinite Mitchell-influence is apparent again on Thomas' third release, If Songs Could Be Held, threading itself through opener "Since You've Been Around" and down into "Loose Ends" and "Let It Be Me," her duet with singer Ed Harcourt. The songs are more subdued than on previous releases, caving inwards before exploding quietly. The piano ballad "Pretty Dress" recalls early Tori Amos, with Thomas' honey-and-heaven voice curling over you like newborn kittens in a laundry basket. The spare arrangements on "Clear As a Bell" and "Guess It May" create a space where the things on her mind (e.g. heartache and heartbreak) can be laid out and, well, held like a tiny baby bird. And Thomas promptly regurgitates all her emotions into their mouths. That may sound kind of gross, but that's the balance she has attained.
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Rosie Thomas' official Web site
Rosie Thomas' Myspace page
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