Lizzie Thomas – Awakening (2025)
In traditional vocal pop, it’s always nice when vocalists step away from doing covers and tributes and into personal work. Veteran singer Lizzie Thomas shows the need for more personal albums in the genre with her latest release, Awakening. It’s a break from the Great American songbook from where she built her identity as an artist. Her sound now is a blend of the spaciousness of traditional pop with the playfulness and intimacy of various soul traditions.
As the album’s producer, Lizzie Thomas chooses not to overload the listener with complex instrumentation. The opener, ‘This Love’, is a perfect example with a lone twinkling piano roll from John Di Martino, introducing the album. Soon, it drops us off into a laid-back environment where the instruments and vocals congregate in a subtle groove. When Thomas lifts her voice to sing, “You and I/we are terrified of living incomplete”, and we transition into a laidback disco piece, everything remains pleasant.
When ‘On ‘Magnificent’, Thomas’ sings, “We’re alive/We’re magnificent/We can fly”, over light samba, the lightness in the playing allows her philosophy to sink in. The spiritual energy of Kevin Sibley’s B3 Hammond Organ gives the affirmations their spine. Bassist Noriko Ueda helps deepen the energy of self-discovery.
The looseness of soul and how Thomas and company go for simplicity create their unique cosiness throughout the album. Songs like ‘Deep’ and ‘Slow Baby Slow’, like ‘Magnificent’, and later on with ‘This Fire’, show how Thomas’ powerful vocals sound at home with the proto neo-soul of Meshell Ndegeocello. On ‘Deep’ and ‘Slow Baby Slow’, Derozan Douglas throbs away on electric bass and syncs well with Dan Wilson’s rugged guitar. Both songs seethe with sensualness.
This warmth also helps Thomas’ high conceptual messages on Awakening stick. Thomas has said of her new songs, “I feel my mission is to share them to serve humanity.” When she goes from details to concept, like on ‘Slow Baby Slow’ with lyrics like, “My energy brings you home/our synergy is reborn…I am made up of Stardust…”, the affirmations feel like she’s more interested in lecture. How she delivers the concepts, at times, buries the “how-to” necessary to achieve her worldview.
On ’Home’, The Harlem Strings Quartet helps craft the album’s standout. Thomas honours her late mother over gentle piano, then throughout, brilliantly shifts into a laidback disco, singing with the pain and love of the singers of old, “Oh how I wish you were here”. That characteristic yearning brings her emotion through like no other style quite does.
The lyrical directness of ‘Love Is All Around’, an ode to friendship, moves Thomas closer to accomplishing her purpose. On Awakening, Lizzie Thomas becomes herself.
Find out more about Lizzie Thomas on her official website, Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, SoundCloud and Spotify.
This artist was sent to us by SF Publicity.
