Rating: 4/5
Verdict: A broken-hearted tale that is actually quite liberating
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Tracey Thorn is pretty against marriage if this album is anything to go by. The song titles are the first sign - Oh the Divorces!, Long White Dress and Singles Bar. Her lyrics are raw, the sound is raw - she sings the naked truth. Opening with simple piano chords,
plucked strings and breathy vocals - not a trace of anything synthetic - Oh the Divorces! is a tear-jerking tale that about a third of the Western population will personally identify with. As the album progresses, she asks who will be the next couple to split (it's always the ones you least expect), confesses she does not want to wear a wedding dress and then asks whether there is room for one more at the singles bar - "can you guess my age in this light?" Yes, the subject of this album is precisely summed up by its title.
Thorn, a British singer-songwriter, is best known as one-half of the unconventional pop duo Everything but the Girl, which is currently on hiatus. She has turned her smooth, country-girl vocals into two other solo albums But the clever reflections of the lyrics of this album - which rocks between blow-into-your-hanky-because-it's-so-sad to laugh-out-loud-because-it's-so-true - make it her best yet.
