MUSIC REVIEW: Sandi Thom

Best known for wishing she was a punk rocker with flowers in her hair, Sandi Thom has released her newest album this year. “Ghosts” came out on the 9th of January this year. Thom has a colorful career under her belt and from a ‘controversial’ start, she started well ahead of her time. In 2006, when her record “Smile, It Confuses People” was released, Thom started a webcast from her basement called “21 Nights in Tooting” – a virtual tour. Now the internet is a widely used tool for self-promotion, with some of the 21st centuries biggest stars making their debuts online. It worked for Thom, shooting her debut to number one in both the UK Singles chart and The Australian Record Industry Association, where it also gained 2 platinum certifications.

Many celebrities and critics bashed her first single saying that if Thom really were a punk rocker, she would “get the shit kicked out of her for wearing flowers in her hair”. I believe this to be naively vapid. Thom wrote the song after having her phone and some other belongings stolen and with no way to contact anyone she tells, “I wondered if that had happened to me back in the days of the hippies, what would I have done, and would I have freaked out so much?”. The song relies on the nostalgic reminiscing of simpler times. When Thom sings “I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair”, she isn’t just pulling on the hardness of the rockers, she’s also recalling the hippy lifestyle.

Dubbed ‘Punk Rocker Reborn’, the anthem has been re-imagined for “Ghosts”, which at first glance seems tacky, but the lyrics are loaded with relevance that perpetuates the idea that the current western political climates have propelled us back in time. The UK gets a shout out “when Brexit is born to stand alone, while “the President of states tweets every hour is corrupted and high and drunk on power”.

‘Look Up’ follows the same premise of ‘Punk Rocker Reborn’ by unfolding a frustration of how “everyone lives by their own devices” and that we need to look up from our online life and into real life. The difficulty that smart devices have placed on human relationships are very real, with Thom solemnly exclaiming “I’m so much more than a screen you touch”. Thom calls on others to look up by telling the listener to tell her “how you feel with both eyes open”.

Thom’s neofolk style, an experimental mix of folk with industrial music, has in this album moved towards the wild west. While the opening song, ‘This Feeling’ opens with a gravely rumble the end swings into a piano interlude to finish. From the slumbery strings starting ‘World War One’ follows the bandit twist, sounding like something you’d hear live in an old dusty saloon. While her career blew up in 2006, Thom’s next albums not being met with the same successes. However, this “Ghosts” proves that her sound and songwriting is all the more relevant.