Record 1 2010 : Know Better Learn Faster

Artist: Thao with the Get Down Stay Down



Over the holidays I got my dad's old turntable. I've been wanting one for a while now. Partially, I have to admit, for the 'cool' factor. But also because I get lost in the excess of my iTunes library. I want to actually start engaging my music, a task unsuited when tunes are being pumped through the computer I'm destined to be doing other stuff on. Plus I want liner notes. I want an object. I want the music to exist as more than bits of information on my hard drive. I want it to have a physical space within my life.

My setup is bleak. The turntable is old. I bought some used speakers from the Love Garden for $30.00, and am syncing it up via a Miniature Pre-AMP. The speakers are 'boxy' sounding, a bit muted as if every note rumbles around for a second before spitting itself out. They provide an organic enough sound. My floor is an uneven layer of shaggy carpet, and any definitive steps near the turntable cause a stutter.

For 2010 I'm looking to buy and write about a record every week. The first, as the above notes, is Thao with the Get Down Stay Down's Know Better Learn Faster. It is the first piece of vinyl I've ever purchased for myself. I decided to pick this up because of a Youtube link from my friend Tim. Thao had an animation in her live performance that seemed catchy, yet distinct. Her vocals were a bit shrill; in the video they had a sparseness that was refreshing in an era where, in my experience, lots of female singers sound pretty damn similar to other female singers.

Based on the confetti-ridden cover, and the vivacity of her live performance, I was expecting a bit more of a poppy sound from the album. Instead, Know Better Learn Faster is a much more somber collection of songs. Lyrically it moves from breakup theme to breakup theme. However, what I think stands out about the record, a carry over from the live Youtube vid, are Thao's vocals. Each word seems like it's tiptoeing against the other sounds of the record. They operate like a collection of blips, oscillating in and out until they construct the lyrical progression of each song. Her voice is there, and then gone. Faded out. Back again. Almost a surprise each time.

What this does is deflate a little bit of the sentimentality. Though the lyrics themselves seem mired in post-relationship depression, Thao's voice delivers them as a reformed, smarter individual. Couple this with the generally upbeat accompaniment of bass and drum, and Know Better Learn Faster is one of those records that is a fun listen as long as one isn't listening too closely.

If anything, this duality is what the title of the record is suggesting, that we Know Better Learn Faster. "Fixed It" serves as the most apt example of this. It's catchy, danceable. It presents the idea of the good-self as a commodity:

And I fixed it
What you hated
Come on
I'll keep it to myself
If I can't sell you some
I'll tell you sober truth
In my sleep tone

The song hopes for a reunion: Another try grounded in the "I fixed it." However, the fix isn't just for the relationship, but for the narrator herself. It's a commodity restored. Narrator as person is valuable again.

As I wrote this, I was reading along with the liner notes. My favorite moment was in the final song "Easy." The lines:

I make it easy, easy to stop
I'll make it easy, easy enough

All I could hear was easypeasy. Over and over. Made me smile.