Thorn, Tracey

***After pausing an 18-year career with partner BEN WATT in best-selling alt-pop duo EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL (1982–2000), followed by a self-imposed hiatus to start a family, TRACEY THORN re-emerged in 2007 to a wave of critical acclaim with the glittering autobiographical folk-disco of Out of the Woods, her first solo album since 1982’s indie classic A Distant Shore. Now she is back with another: the starkly beautiful Love And Its Opposite on Merge Records. Partnering again with Berlin-based producer EWAN PEARSON (who worked on much of Out of the Woods and more recently with Delphic), Love And Its Opposite is an album that is striking in its simplicity. Recorded in Berlin and London, and featuring guest contributions from HOT CHIP’s AL DOYLE, THE INVISIBLE’s LEO TAYLOR, Swedish singer/songwriter JENS LEKMAN, Nashville songwriter-drummer CORTNEY TIDWELL, and LOST VALENTINO’s guitarist JONO MA, Love And Its Opposite is steeped in a compassionate directness. The tight, often undecorated arrangements for guitar, piano, bass, and drums (and a smattering of strings and woodwinds) serve ten songs over a compact thirty-nine minutes that confront the full unvarnished weight of complex relationships in flux. Love And Its Opposite is a humane and truthful collection from one of our finest singers and songwriters. (STREET DATE - 5/18/2010)