We the Common
| We The Common | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by Thao & the Get Down Stay Down | ||||
| Released | February 5, 2013 | |||
| Studio | Tiny Telephone | |||
| Genre | Folk | |||
| Length | 36:39 | |||
| Label | Ribbon Music | |||
| Producer | John Congleton | |||
| Thao & the Get Down Stay Down chronology | ||||
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| Singles from We The Common | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Aggregate scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 70/100 |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
| Exclaim | (9/10) |
| NME | (6/10) |
| Paste Magazine | 89/100 |
| Pitchfork | (7.5/10.0) |
We the Common is an album by alternative folk band Thao & the Get Down Stay Down. It was released on February 5, 2013 on the Ribbon Music label.
Produced by John Congleton, the album features a guest appearances from Joanna Newsom on "Kindness Be Conceived".
After the 2009 album Know Better Learn Faster, Thao Nguyen took a break from touring and recording, and volunteered with local outreach projects in her new home of San Francisco. One of these projects was the California Coalition for Women Prisoners, an organization that advocates for healthcare and medical care. During these prison visits she met several women who were serving long sentences - one of them being Valerie Bolden who inspired the album's title track. Nguyen considers this outreach work as a major influence on her music and stated that it had "emotionally shaped" much of We the Common.
Nguyen stated of the album: "My intention from the beginning was to make an album full of songs that better captured the energy and hope and optimism of the collective and of one person in particular—myself—who wanted to be a part of that collective, and one who wanted to be more present in her own life and the lives of those she loved."
Valerie Bolden, who is currently serving a life sentence without parole for killing her abuser in self-defense, was the inspiration for the album's title track and the lyrics "All they wanted was a villain, a villain, and all they had was me." At the time of the album's release, Bolden has been incarcerated for seventeen years and has not seen her children in twelve years.
The song “City” was written as a tribute to Nguyen’s activist friends at the beginning of the Occupy movement. Nguyen explained in an interview with Mother Jones, “We were on tour at the time so I could check out these burgeoning hubs of activity, and we came home and I thought, ‘If I lay still through this, shame if I sleep tonight.’"
The song “Kindness Be Conceived,” featuring Joanna Newsom, had been written a month before Nguyen had met Newsom. "I wanted more of that old-time feel in the vocal harmonies. So when we met I shyly asked if she would demo. She did an amazing job, I’m so glad and grateful to have her on the record," explained Nguyen. The two had met at a songwriters' retreat at Hedgenrook.
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