Released a little over a year after
Chris Thile took over as host of the public radio variety show A Prairie Home Companion,
Thanks for Listening collects ten Song of the Week features from his inaugural season. Each song was an original written for that week and premiered live on the show. Finding a common theme among personal, societal, and political topics in some of the songs -- namely, the art of listening --
Thile headed to the studio with producer
Thomas Bartlett to record selections for a cohesive album. On these versions, the mandolin virtuoso covers stringed instruments except bass and viola, and sings lead, though he's joined on some songs by guest vocalists
Sarah Jarosz,
Aoife O'Donovan, and
Gaby Moreno, all Prairie alumnae under
Thile. One of the album's flashier mandolin performances can be found on the spare "Balboa," whose multicultural wanderlust receives intricate and nuanced accompaniment. By and large, though,
Thanks for Listening puts a premium on songs over chops, not that there's any lack of instrumental proficiency here. An atmospheric track like "Feedback Loop," for instance, uses a slow tempo, keyboards, and echo along with acoustic instruments. After setting an intentionally lethargic tone, lyrics get at our ability to filter unwelcome opinions on social media and elsewhere ("Feedback Loop, I play you to soothe my closed eyes/Closed mind/Open wounds/Open hate for anyone out of the Feedback Loop"). Later, the poppier "Falsetto" grapples with the constant derision, real and imagined, from a post-election Donald Trump, including what he might have to say about an activist musician. Other songs address fatherhood, family gatherings, and friendship in the context of the time's technology and politics. Despite its more collaborative origins,
Thanks for Listening plays like a singer/songwriter album from
Thile, one with moments of humor, poignancy, dread, and playfulness. Particularly "for anyone trying to hear through the din of a boorish year," it captures the Zeitgeist of the first half of 2017 with a very human touch. ~ Marcy Donelson