These Friends of Hers: An Album Review

I've always liked Rosie Thomas. When other reviewers likened her to a third-tier performer at a Lilith Fair festival or called her an only slightly more complex Norah Jones, I have been quick to come to her defense. Her voice is sadder and sweeter and richer. Her lyrics are deeper and fuller. I am, in a word, a fan.

However, I have always felt that what Rosie begins strongly she simply continues doing until the last few tracks on her albums become forgettable. While I own all of these albums, I've been waiting for her to record one that stays consistently interesting.

She did. And it turns out all she needed was a little help from her friends. The title, the title track, and the dedication all serve to remind the listener that Rosie had some assistance on this one. Not that she hasn't had help before. Friends have made appearances on past albums, and Ed Harcourt showed up on her "If Songs Could Be Held" album to sing duet vocals on a cover of "Let It Be Me" (a song that has been covered plenty and did not need to be covered again).

The friends that she alludes to on the album "These Friends of Mine" are Sufjan Stevens, Denison Witmer, Damien Jurado, and David Bazan (just to name a few). The liner notes describe a series of phone calls, dinner table conversations, and living room recordings.

But without the title, the song, or the liner notes, we'd have known something was different. This album is more fun, more alive, more electric in spite of its acoustics. The spirit that anyone who has attended a Sufjan Stevens show can attest to is present all over this album.

And yet, it is still Rosie's album and would be better understood as "Me and These Friends of Mine". While she couldn't have done it without them, they most certainly couldn't have done it without her. Norah Jones or Sarah McLachlan weren't going to gather these guys into one room and record something nearly this good.

Rosie's voice is as charming as ever and her lyrics as heartfelt, but the songs are consistently distinctive in a way that she has never been before. "If This City Never Sleeps" and "All The Way To New York City" offer up a picture of the Big Apple that is sweeter and less seedy than I've always imagined it to be. Standout tracks like "Much Farther To Go" carry a weightiness that is more substantive than burdensome. Even the covers are better. Rosie and Sufjan's reworking of "The One I Love" by R.E.M. aches in places that the original never did.

So, cheers to Rosie. She made the album I always knew she could make and she wasn't afraid to get a little help doing it. "These Friends of Mine" serves as a testimony to her talents as well as the testimony to friendship and community that she means for it to be.