Emma-Jean Thackray : Weirdo
There’s not a cool point, nor a poseur sitch, to be found on the just-released, bold, and devastatingly compelling project from the West Yorkshire-born bandleader Emma-Jean Thackray. Written, performed, recorded, mixed, produced, and arranged entirely in her South London flat, Weirdo was originally conceived as a strategy to speak about her struggles with mental health—Thackray is autistic and has ADHD. “I’ve had the word ‘weirdo’ thrust upon me as an insult. So I’ve tried to reclaim it now and to be proud; it makes my art different from anyone else’s,” she recently told The Guardian. Weirdo was further shaped after the death of her partner of 12 years.
Now, I don’t personally know the odd-duck polymath who can play the shit out of any instrument she touches. But after catching her show at Cafe du Nord in San Francisco in 2022, where she charmed the entire venue full of picky-ass, it’s SF people, scenesters, writers, curious couples out on a date night, and even more musicians and DJs, I ran into a high-ranking official who works for SFJAZZ at the show, bouncing, humming, and levitating his way into his car service at the show’s end. That 85-minute set? As a friend of mine would asses, “good clean energy.” Thackray maneuvered her talented group mostly through her critically praised 2021 album Yellow, with phasers set on funk. Those bump-guns served up the groove.
Listen, I’m a semi-retired DJ, always making IRT calculations (talk about a weirdo) on how people will react to certain types of music. I can’t help it. Let me tell you, Thackray swung a set that put people at ease, feeling no pain, caught up in rapturous joy, designed to accompany any dance floor, basement, warehouse, pop-up jam or rehearsal place. She made that age-old downstairs speakeasy, a dang bounce house full of flippy floppy; an entire venue, eating out of her whims. Boogieing, as best as they could, on a school night.
Weirdo, like that incredible live set, is free of any wasted moments. It’s an impressive undertaking that works undeniably—you can hear, feel, and absorb the array of emotions. “Let Me Sleep,” the fourth track in, is one of the most gripping, heartstring-tugging moments here, and there’s a full haul throughout, but this is just so choice, taking us deep into the slumber of depression where the attempted act of sleep is the only solace for peace. With light piano chords and rippling drum patterns, about mid-way through, EJT just takes your breath away with self-confession: “My bones ache/My thoughts race/My legs shake/My eyes sting, sharp with salt/Let me sleep my days away/let me sleep my days away.” Beautiful.
“Let Me Sleep” is just one of numerous scenarios on Weirdo, where EJT measures and orchestrates the chemistry, balances the alchemy between words and charts, speaking so directly from the heart. As with her live performance, EJT is upfront and direct, handling business from the jump. She calls her shots with the opening moment, “Something Wrong With Your Mind,” like an old PBS segment or after-school special jingle, with background lyric readings in a different key symbolizing an emotion—one that’s most definitely off-putting—has arrived. And we’re off. Nineteen songs under an hour that act and expand on the vast, wide-reaching emotion that seems to just grow and grow before it reduces. Losing your person, your human. Thackray creates that feeling on wax, those steps of bereavement through George Duke-esque bizarre fusion soul, one moment, and then punky, poppy, fussy, synthy R&B the next.
“Wanna Die” a slippery do through amalgam textures, a bit Prince-like, pushes the tempo high, with guitars and repetitive lyrics mimicking the up-and-down roller coaster of an unstable mind-frame after losing someone. It’s pure tsunami teetering, dialed in. We punch through modes of isolation with two different songs back to back: “Tofu” and “Fried Rice,” that move quickly, with funk and sing-song appeal. But the two standouts toward the end—“It’s Okay” featuring Kassa Overall, the jazz drummer and emcee, and the final track, the gospel-tinged anthem “Thank You for the Day”—give EJT her best footing as an arranger, jazz musician (we get her on horn just for a second) and supreme producer who can hold a consistent theme through a concept album.
Maybe you noticed this is on Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood imprint, already indicating, “oh, this record is good.” It’s more than that. It’s a coming-out party for the 35-year-old polymath, creating distance between her and those other talented UK jazz contemporaries. At some point, you have to stare down the path less traveled to overcome, which is just what Weirdo does concerning both its subject matter and our ears.
Label: Brownswood
Year: 2025
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Emma-Jean Thackray : Weirdo
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