Thalia Zedek Band - Perfect Vision (2021)

For someone like me who was born in the eighties and grew up with the narration of a certain epic nineties Nirvana, a Thalia Zedek record is like a homecoming. Indeed, in some respects, it is much better. In the sense that the long past and present history of Thalia Zedek, the singer and guitarist from Washington, but raised in Boston, is here enriched with yet another chapter that carries on a coherent, strong and if not influential path for what concerns "pop" culture like other "phenomena" (which I define not by chance as such, then we will evaluate their artistic value elsewhere and according to individual cases) certainly valid, solid and with great contents and a series of exceptional record productions from Uzi to Live Skull, from Come to records as a soloist and those released as Thalia Zedek Band. The current line-up which obviously includes Thalia at the helm, flanked by the rhythm section composed of bassist Winston Braman and drummer Gavin McCarthy (former Karate and drummer also in the project E always with Thalia Zedek as well as guitarist Jason Sanford). There is disk space for some guests. Karen Sarkisian plays pedal steel on the opening track "Perfect Vision" (Thrill Jockey), ie Cranes, a piece in the Zedek style and incredibly catchy as the best alternative rock pieces of the nineties. Her stuff that the Hole would have done on entire records if they had the "balls". Another guest is Alison Chesley who plays piano and cello in the decadent electric ballad played in time of Smoked waltz and then in the overwhelming final track Tolls, probably the symbolic song of the disc and with many greetings to Nick Cave and Warren Ellis who with the fuck that today they write a piece like this. An album recorded with the collaboration in the control room of Seth Manchester and full of tension and expressive force both in the sounds with pieces that have a certain freshness despite having their roots in solid ground such as Binoculars (with Mel Lederman on the piano) that it is a piece that recalls a certain Mark Lanegan for the dark and cavernous hues, but whose guitar turns are evidently recognizable and Thalia Zedek. The songs are as tough as they are catchy: Overblown, From the Fire (with Brian Carpenter on trumpet), The Plan, Revelation Time, Remain. It really looks like a record from the nineties but without that heaviness of some things that obviously only made sense at that moment. Thalia Zedek's great energy and freshness, the expressive strength, the ability to always be on the piece and to communicate an emotional tension that looks at the world around us but without neglecting the inner turbulence, surprises us. Once again we bow to her greatness and thank you for having once again proposed a great album that makes us feel eternally young or always on the piece and eager to savor despite all of life.