AWmusic

The new album Know Better Learn Faster coincides with themes of Thao’s writing on the previous album – which revolved around singing about being a kid and not quite grown up. On this album, you have a slightly more matured (not necessarily better, in a way I tend to like the child like innocent song writing) version of Thao. Instead of questioning oneself and adding in self doubt, the music is more dynamic and riskier.

I’m not going to say the album is necessarily better but it shows off that Thao Nguyen and company are here to stay as it wasn’t a fluke of an album. I can’t judge off her other albums because I haven’t checked them out (yet) but the album just pours out talent. The album might not be on the level of We All Brave Bee Stings And All but again lofty expectations tend to get you disappointed. In this case, it’s more of the band and Thao Nguyen expanding their sounds a bit too much giving a slight lack of consistency on the album.

As for consistency goes, the band is consistency good so I’m perfectly satisfied with that. The album still gives you a good idea of where Thao Nguyen is in her life and how great she is as a singer and songwriter. Perhaps a small fine tuning might be needed as it’s ever close for Thao Nguyen With The Get Down Stay Down to make an album that critics have to stop ignoring (though the reviews have been very good, I’m not sure it’s quite there yet in terms of the top echelon).

Rating: 4.25 out of 5
A good album, perhaps a little bit all over the place and as stand alone songs there’s A LOT of great stuff. It just doesn’t work too well from song to song. Or else, you’d see a very high score.

When We Swam by Thao With The Get Down Stay Down
Easy by Thao With The Get Down Stay Down