More about: Emma-Jean Thackray

The multi-talented, multi-hyphenate Emma-Jean Thackray is commonly placed within “The Great Brit Jazz Resurgence of the Second Decade of the 21st Century”, but also cites myriad influences from Madlib to Brian Wilson. It’s these autodidact icons of vision, with the singular ability to fashion wonders of sound, that run closer to Thackray’s approach to music.

An accomplished musician, singer, composer and producer; on her breakout 2018 EP Ley Lines Thackray played all the parts herself, including a clarinet she’d picked up for the first time ten minutes before recording.

There have been hints of something significant coming since that EP. Appearances on last year’s banner compilation Blue Note Revisited, albums by Hector Plimmer and Scrimshire (with a brilliant lead vocal and trumpet performance on the fusion of Afrobeat + bass music ‘Won’t Get Better’) and ‘UM YANG 음 양’for Night Dreamer, only further whet appetites. 

And Yellow doesn’t disappoint. Throughout the album, connections are found between jazz, disco, RnB, funk, hip-hop, dub and worldly, head-expanding influences. The free-jazz opener ‘Mercury’ is a palette cleanser warm-up for a hugely addictive album of groove-locked, spiritual, psychedelic, horn-busting, chant-laden wonders. ‘Say Something’ draws lines between jazz and house without being either, packed with positive mantras that build into ecstatic chants. ‘Venus’ feels positively religious—if religion had actual fun gods worth praising and wasn’t just a means for the powerful to control the masses—beaming out with absolute joy and celebration.

On ‘Our People’, conscious semi-rapped lyrics about universal connections slay over deeply kinetic rhythms and grooves. There are shifts in mood on the haunting ‘Spectre’, RnB jam ‘Golden Green’ and not-interludes ‘About That’ and ‘Green Funk’. The gospel-spiked title track doubles down on the album’s overall message: “Be yellow, be mellow, be kind to your fellow humans, we're all made of sunshine”. 

An aura of positivity surrounds the record and a calm, comforting balance pervades even the more frenetic moments. This is in part due to Thackray’s studies in Taoism, an ancient eastern philosophical tradition she learnt from her father. “I was learning how to meditate from being a child,” explains Thackray in a statement. “I picked up all these philosophical ideas. Like, everything is cyclical, life is cyclical. And the universe is in balance - this perfectly balanced system that’s all around you”. 

Yellow is a triumph of Thackray’s singular vision. A positive, consistent, joyously listenable and danceable album, which somehow pulls off being both instantly memorable and continually surprising. Thackray says “I wanted the whole thing to sound like a psychedelic trip. You put on the first track, it takes you through this intense thing for almost an hour, and then you emerge on the other side transformed.” In that, and more, she succeeds. Yellow is an essential album for 2021.

Yellow arrives 23 July via Movementt.

More about: Emma-Jean Thackray