Thalia’s big three

Come Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (MATADOR, 1994)

Chris Brokaw quit Codeine to concentrate on Come’s second LP. After a series of recording mishaps, missed promotional opportunities and bassist Sean O’Brien quitting, the LP missed its mark. “A little bit of a bummer,” Zedek admits. Today, it sounds brilliant, with some of their strongest songs (German Song; Mercury Falls).

Thalia Zedek Band Fighting Season (THRILL JOCKEY, 2018)

A trio of great Bostonian guitarists meet on Zedek’s seventh solo album: J Mascis, Chris Brokaw and, of course, Zedek herself. “Don’t try to rescue me/You are not the one,” warns opening track Bend Again, which features all three, her voice soaring and swooping over the glowing, droning guitars.

Thalia Zedek Band Perfect Vision (THRILL JOCKEY, 2021)

Zedek’s latest album is a powerful, politically charged investigation of a chaotic time in America (Cranes: “The pride of the nation has been erased/ Drowned in waves of shame”). Her delivery ranges from hushed to strident against a backdrop of freeform country blues that plunges and rises around her.