Thelma – “Sway” & “Stranger Love” Video
Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Natasha Jacobs is the clever wit and elastic voice behind Thelma. They released their self-titled debut album back in 2017 and are now gearing up to share The Only Thing. We’ve already heard its glorious, theatrical lead single, “Take Me To Orlando.” Today, Thelma gives us two new songs and a music video: “Sway” and “Stranger Love” with its Hunter Zimny-directed video.
Jacobs alternates between a hushed coo and wobbly falsetto on “Stranger Love.” Synths shift in and out of key like an eerie nursery rhyme. “How I wish there was something I could find to hate about you / To disqualify what I’m feeling,” she sings. “But I don’t know you well enough to know an ugly side / And it’s looking like I probably never will.”
The video begins with Jacobs milling about the house, doing aerobics in the living room while The Parent Trap plays on TV and breaking a screen door. She travels with a rolling backpack down the road and across the beach to an indoor swimming pool where she teaches synchronized swimming to a group of middle-age adults.
“Sway” is more patient, stable, grounded by an intermittent horn and steady beat even as her “body slips away” and there’s “a hole in the porch.” Check out “Sway and “Stranger Love” below via Tiny Mix Tapes.
The Only Thing is out 2/22. Pre-order it here.