The Thousands

The 12 tracks on Felicity Groom’s debut Gossamer serve as a very seductive distillation of Groom’s musical development over the seven or so years she’s been gigging. In this time she has grown into an assured performer and forged a distinctive sound which is best described as dark, folk ballads with lashings of her full-bodied, highly emotive croon. The album however strays widely from this format, especially in the standout, indie-pop number ‘Finders & Keepers’ which, through sheer vivacity and forward-momentum, makes being a poor artist sound like the funnest thing in the world (as opposed to the Centrelink/Mi Goreng fuelled nightmare it actually is).

In the Golden Age of Hipster Runoff, Carles wrote a piece in his typically ‘insanely relevant’ fashion about whether ‘indie bros’ could ever appreciate music by ‘zany female artists’ without the issue of whether they are ‘crazy mad hot’ coming into the equation. Looking at the female artists I appreciate (Joanna Newsom, Janelle Monae, Björk) and the ones I don’t (Gossip, Tracy Chapman), I can’t help but think that I am not immune to this sort of thinking. I only bring this up in the interest of full disclosure in that when I say I really dig Gossamer, I may not exactly be the most objective source.