Thao and the Get Down Stay Down have been so good for so long. Ever since “We Brave Bee Stings and All,” Thao Nguyen and her band have been releasing catchy, thoughtful songs about love, friendships, death, politics, and family history. She’s one of those artists who’s always up to something interesting, digging into material and emotions that others might not take up with the same passion.
“Temple,” the title track from the band’s 2020 album, is a good example of this tendency. Thao sings the song, which seems to be about the fall of Saigon, from her mother’s perspective. It’s an astonishing song, not only for Thao’s ability to realistically carry the emotions of her mother and inhabit her mother’s perspective, but also because it’s one of the boldest and catchiest songs in the band’s catalogue. It starts with a blaring guitar riff (close to the tone of the guitar that opens Belle and Sebastian’s “Legal Man”), marching percussion, and a loose bass rumble. And then Thao sings, in her bright, soft voice, “I lost my city in the light of day/Thick smoke/Helicopter blades/Heaven and earth I've never moved so fast/You'll never know the fear your mama has.” Later on, in the verses, Thao sing-speaks in a hardened, straightforward tone, looking back on what happened and what was lost. This in particular is so good: “Look at this one/I want you to see/Fashion was high/My hair was so long/This was maybe '73/You know I have been adored by good and kind men/They sent their love with poetry/By day I gave grand speeches/At night, like you/We danced to be free.”
“Lion on the Hunt,” another track from “Temple,” is equally impressive, but so different in vibe. “Lion on the Hunt” feels like a statement of purpose, imperiousness, capability. It’s all confidence, but delivered through the mechanism of a rattling, shaky tune. There’s some aspect of the music here that calls to mind a couple standout songs from Enon, the jittery band that arose from Brainiac. The unsteady percussion, Thao’s voice climbing and lurching in conjunction with the off-kilter guitar riffs, it all makes for a weird and beautiful conflict between the assured lyrics and the anxious twitchiness of the music.
“Temple” came out originally in 2020, in the midst of the first part of the pandemic, and now it’s getting a new release in deluxe form (with four extra ‘string versions’ of album tracks). This is the last release from a wonderful band with a string of great releases, though it’ll be fun to see what Thao does next.