Out West Arts: Performance at the end of the world

I’ve always loved Tracey Thorn’s voice and music. Her latest recording, Love and Its Opposite, came out last week and has quickly become this week’s favorite. Thorn’s songs delve into material fairly off the beaten path for pop songs. In particular, they deal with social concerns of the average 40-year-old – dealing with the divorces among your friends (“Oh the Divorces"), coming to grips with your ambivalence about the institution of marriage (“Long White Dress”), or relating to your teenage children (“Hormones”). Her lyrics can still cut to the quick. Ewan Pearson’s production on Love and Its Opposite owes a lot less to electronic dance music than anything Thorn’s done in many years and is fairly straight forward. It’s an excellent grown up pop record that I highly recommend.

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