Rosie Thomas review

Rosie Thomas – If Songs Could Be Held (2005, Sub Pop Records)


I’ve always thought that Rosie Thomas’s music is very pretty whenever I’ve heard bits or pieces of it, but I’ve never purchased it. I’ve sat at a CD store listening station with her album When We Were Small playing on the headphones for a long time, trying to decide if I like it enough to pay for, but eventually decided it just wasn’t for me. I decided instead that I would recommend it to an ex-girlfriend who I knew would like it. If it had been a cheaper copy, I probably just would have bought it for her myself.

I’m not sure that there’s going to be many men who find If Songs Could Be Held appealing enough to be inclined to purchase it. There is something very distinctly feminine about it, as if Rosie Thomas is singing straight to the other women in the audience. This is music about being a woman, and perhaps I might gain some insight if I’m willing to pay attention, but I personally won’t be able to identify with it. I’m not even certain if I’m invited to.

At best, I can feel that I might feel like I'm the subject of songs like “Say What You Want,” which is only one degree of separation away from Norah Jones’s “Don’t Know Why,” or “Clear As a Bell” as she sings “I’m sure I’ll convince myself to get over you" over some wonderful finger-picking. I can also appreciate when Ed Harcourt, who I quite like, pops up to help her cover the classic “Let It Be Me.”

But all in all, I feel like I should have a girl review this CD. I mean, listen to “Pretty Dress” yourself and tell me that any boy is really going to connect with this song in the way a woman would. So what’s a boy to do?