Thao Nguyen is quirky and poignant. Her voice is playful and still so powerful. Her guitar skills are highly honed and yet very simple. Together with the three other members of her band, she makes catchy, interesting, and highly original music.
Thao and the Get Down Stay Down’s “Holy Roller” is a perfect example of this. It is a tense, jangling folk/rock piece, just lusty and passionate enough.
The song begins with groovy and clean guitar run that sounds vaguely exotic and very mesmerizing. The catchy riff lulls the listener immediately with a smooth and almost jazzy intro over light-hearted drums. But the chorus rolls in with a bang. With a sudden crash of intense cymbals Thao sings “holy roller roll over me / I’m looking for something else to see.” The song slows again, feeling very much like a stylish and quirky roller coaster.
I have fallen in love with Thao Nguyen’s voice, and I’m sure a lot of other people have as well. And many more surely will. She sings in a very unique way and without the opening lyric (where she sings that she is “a woman of leisure”) a listener might be fooled by the genderless quality of her voice. It is an intriguing blend of Nate Ruess of fun. and Alanis Morissette. That is the only way to describe it
Thao and the Get Down Stay Down’s third studio album, humbly titled We the Common, is scheduled to be released next week and available now digitally. If you like charmingly weird, unusually fascinating, and unpredictable music, be sure to check it out. “Holy Roller” will be one of many great songs on the tracklist, and surely one of countless to come from Thao and the Get Down Stay Down in the near and distant future.