A Man Alive

A Man Alive
Studio album by Thao & the Get Down Stay Down
Released March 4, 2016
Studio Tiny Telephone & Different Fur Studios, San Francisco
Genre Alternative folk
Label Ribbon Music
Producer Merrill Garbus
Thao & the Get Down Stay Down chronology
We the Common
(2013)		 A Man Alive
(2016)
Singles from A Man Alive
  1. "Nobody Dies"
    Released: December 10, 2015
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic79/100[1]
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic link
Paste Magazine94/100 link
Pitchfork8/10 link
Exclaim9/10 link

A Man Alive is the fourth studio album by alternative folk band Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, released on the Ribbon Music label in March 2016.[2]

Background

The subject matter of the album was inspired by Thao Nguyen's relationship with her estranged father, who "left when I was maybe 11 or 12, my parents split up. And so he kinda just floated away but you never knew when he would come back and you never knew when he would just leave."[3]

"This record, you know a lot of that is me releasing whatever I have to and grieving in whatever way, and having a lot of anger and then trying to sort of move forward, to forgive," Nguyen says. "But then a few songs later, I could leave him for dead."[3]

Composition

The decision to pair personal subject matter with upbeat music was a conscious one, inspired by reactions to the band's live performances. "The most fulfilling parts of our live show, that we love the most and what the crowd seemed to love the most were beat and bass driven. I wanted to move away from chordally based songs, and I wanted to rely more heavily on the beat and the groove. We wanted to pay more tribute to hip-hop influences...Once I realized what this record would be about, then it was definitely a non-negotiable in that it would be fun to perform. You can’t be sad every night without fail."[4]

According to Nguyen, the song "Meticulous Bird" is "about various abuses of power, sexual assault and abuse in particular. I wanted whoever to be able to scream 'I take my body back.'"[3]

Recording

The album is the second collaboration between Nguyen and producer Merrill Garbus, leader of the Tune-Yards project, following Garbus's work on Nguyen's 2011 Thao + Mirah album.[5]

On their collaboration, Nguyen says "She was everything I needed her to be: a steward in support. I didn’t want to put 'Millionaire' on the record because it felt too vulnerable, and she said, 'Are you fucking kidding? Of course we’re putting it on the record'—which is what I needed."[4]

Promotion

To promote A Man Alive, Nguyen and Garbus created a video with Funny or Die dissecting the making of the song "Astonished Man" which parodied a New York Times video that featured Diplo and Skrillex, and Justin Bieber discussing the making of the song Jack Ü song, Where Are Ü Now. [6]

Accolades

Publication Accolade Year Rank
Paste The 50 Best Albums of 2016 2016
30[7]

Track listing[8]

No. Title Length
1. "Astonished Man"   3:30
2. "Slash/Burn"   3:11
3. "The Evening"   3:25
4. "Departure"   3:26
5. "Nobody Dies"   3:48
6. "Guts"   4:05
7. "Fool Forever"   3:08
8. "Millionaire"   3:06
9. "Meticulous Bird"   3:22
10. "Give Me Peace"   2:59
11. "Hand to God"   3:52
12. "Endless Love"   3:48

Personnel

Musicians
  • Lynne Angel - drum samples, inspiration
  • Merrill Garbus - bass, cabasa, clapping, farfisa organ, flute, producer, sampling, vocals, backing vocals
  • Thao Nguyen - bass, clapping, composer, drum programming, drums, guitar, loops, mandolin, oscillator, percussion, telecaster, toy piano, univox, vocals
  • Johanna Kunin - clapping, vocals, backing vocals
  • Sami Perez - clapping, backing vocals
  • Jason Slota - clapping, cowbell, drums, gamelan, percussion, shaker, tambourine
  • Beau Sorenson - clapping, engineer, guitar, linn drum, loops, mixing, programming, sampling, sequencing
  • Adam Thompson - audio manipulation, bass, casio, clapping, glockenspiel, guitar, polysynth, synthesizer, synthesizer bass
Production
  • Naomi Clark - paintings
  • Noah Cates - design
  • Matt Colton - mastering
  • Maria Kanevskaya - photography
  • Kate Pruitt - art direction

References

  1. ↑ "Reviews for A Man Alive by Thao & the Get Down Stay Down". Metacritic. Retrieved May 19, 2016.
  2. ↑ Primas, Tyler (2016) "", 7X7, February 18, 2016. Retrieved March 3, 2016
  3. 1 2 3 Staff, N. P. R. "Music Moment: Thao Nguyen". NPR.org. Retrieved 2016-04-11.
  4. 1 2 "Thao Nguyen Gets Down and Gets Personal: "Everyone Is Just Trying Communicate" | NOISEY". NOISEY. Retrieved 2016-04-11.
  5. ↑ "Thao & Mirah (3) - Thao & Mirah". Discogs. Retrieved 2016-04-13.
  6. ↑ http://pitchfork.com/news/64365-tune-yards-thao-the-get-down-stay-down-parody-diplo-skrillex-and-justin-bieber-in-new-video/
  7. ↑ "The 50 Best Albums of 2016". Paste. November 30, 2016. Retrieved December 1, 2016.
  8. ↑ "A Man Alive - Thao & the Get Down Stay Down | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 2016-04-08.
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