One of the most difficult tasks for a musical artist is to develop her project’s sound after a first, well-received album. Being diagnosed with thyroid cancer and a genetic joint disorder called Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, conditions that affect vocals and instrumental ability, certainly doesn’t make the challenge any easier. None of this prevented Brooklyn songwriter Thelma (aka Natasha Jacobs) from taking her music to the next level in less than two years. Her 2017 self titled debut LP was a collection of heartfelt and somewhat odd orchestral ballads. From the sound of the first single from sophomore LP "The Only Thing," Jacobs is upping the ante of her songwriting by amplifying the oddness and intensity of her chord progressions, lyrics, melodies and arrangements. A sparse and imaginative mid-tempo featuring acoustic drums, synths and harp, Take me to Orlando" is an ode to illusions, a poem dedicated to a yet-to-be-met lover to whom Thelma sings: "I love how you play with illusion / cause you know how badly we need them / But honey you’re so real / and you dance around fear […] and you don’t make me feel like I’m the woman I am not." Which sounds like a cleared-sighted expression of the healing power of art-making.
Don’t miss Thelma’s live show at Trans-Pecos on December 20th and look out for her new album, scheduled for a February 22 release.