Emma-Jean Thackray Weirdo
Emma-Jean Thackray's Weirdo arrives as a bold, humane rejoinder to loss, marrying funk and jazz fusion with a restless, genre-hopping energy that critics call both consoling and combustible. Across four professional reviews, the consensus suggests the record turns grief into danceable reckoning, with an 84.5/100 consensus score from 4 reviews that frames the album as a triumph of creative resilience and home-recording intimacy.
Reviewers consistently praise the record's standout songs for balancing sorrow and uplift. Critics flagged “Save Me” repeatedly as a centerpiece, and also singled out “Staring at the Wall”, “Thank You for the Day”, “Black Hole” and “Where'd You Go” as moments where Thackray's knack for P-Funk, disco-inflected soul and afrobeat buoyancy crystallizes. Across Pitchfork, The Quietus, Clash Music and The Line of Best Fit, the critical consensus notes her sly humor, velveteen 70s tones and propulsive grooves as tools for emotional recovery rather than mere stylistic flourishes.
While praise is dominant, reviewers add nuance: some point to the album's eccentric, occasionally disorienting leaps between jazz, hip-hop, psych and pop, framing that eclecticism as both the album's greatest asset and its challenge. Overall, critics agree that Weirdo is a vividly personal, music-first statement—an assured evolution that uses genre-blending and candid domestic imagery to convert vulnerability into empowerment, leaving little doubt that the best songs on Weirdo justify repeated listening.
Read on for in-depth reviews that unpack how these tracks and themes shape Thackray's most emotionally expansive record to date.
Critics' Top Tracks
The standout songs that made critics take notice
Thank You for the Day
1 mention
"closer ‘Thank You For The Day’ is properly transcendent"— Clash Music
Staring at the Wall
1 mention
"see[s] Thackray detail being "consumed with the thought of you""— Clash Music
Where'd You Go
1 mention
"‘Where’d You Go’ drives right up to the edge of banality until, just before halfway through, one final devastating query"— The Quietus
closer ‘Thank You For The Day’ is properly transcendent
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
Something Wrong With Your Mind
Weirdo
Stay
Let Me Sleep
Please Leave Me Alone
Save Me
Maybe Nowhere
What is the Point
Black Hole (feat. Reggie Watts)
In Your Mind
Tofu
Fried Rice
Where’d You Go
Wanna Die
Staring at the Wall
I Don’t Recognise My Hands
It’s Okay (feat. Kassa Overall)
Remedy
Thank You for the Day
What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 6 critics who reviewed this album
Critic's Take
Faced with grief, Emma-Jean Thackray answers with music that makes you move while it feels, and on Weirdo the best songs - notably “What is the Point” and “Tofu” - turn despair into buoyant jazz-funk. The reviewer’s voice delights in the record’s sly humor and velveteen 70s soul, praising runs that make lyrics inspirational as much as tragic. Tracks like “Stay” and “Save Me” slide between resignation and gospel rave-up, proving the album’s strength is its ability to hold danceable grooves and weighty feeling at once.
Key Points
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“What is the Point” is best because it fuses brutal lyrical honesty with impressive vocal runs that transform despair into inspiration.
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The album’s core strength is marrying buoyant jazz-funk grooves with heavy emotional themes, using humor and arrangement to make grief danceable.
Themes
Critic's Take
Emma-Jean Thackray's Weirdo is a miracle of joyful survival, and the best tracks - notably “Save Me” and “Wanna Die” - are where her craft hits hardest and most generous. In the reviewer's voice the album's pop-meets-P-Funk and disco-inflected surfaces fold into raw emotional work, so that songs like “Maybe Nowhere” and “Remedy” feel both expansive and necessary. The record rewards repeat listening because each standout song reveals compositional precision and an unwavering commitment to uplift, making clear why listeners ask which are the best tracks on Weirdo and why those answers keep returning to the same few anthems.
Key Points
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“Save Me” is the album’s best song because it pairs direct, aching lyrics with dancefloor-ready, genre-spanning arrangements.
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The album’s core strength is its genre-hopping musicianship and an uplifting compositional touch that turns personal grief into communal empowerment.
Themes
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Critic's Take
In his clear-eyed way Tom Morgan finds the best tracks on Weirdo in their ability to marry funk and sorrow - the bruised intimacy of “Staring at the Wall” and the cautious solace of “Thank You for the Day” stand out. He praises Thackray's deft genre-blending across jazz, hip-hop, p-funk and psych rock, arguing these sounds make the best songs on Weirdo both immediate and strange. The reviewer frames the album as a record of processing loss, and it is the songs that balance lightness and pain that he highlights most convincingly.
Key Points
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The best song, "Thank You for the Day", is singled out as transcendent and the emotional resolution of the album.
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The album's core strength is its deft genre-blending and the juxtaposition of effervescent jazz-funk with raw, grieving lyrics.
Themes
Critic's Take
Emma-Jean Thackray's Weirdo feels like an act of survival, where the best tracks illuminate grief with stubborn joy. The propulsive “Save Me” is a clear highlight, its afrobeat buoyancy pushing the record forward, while the fuzz-bass groove of “Maybe Nowhere” and the P-funk swirl of “Black Hole” supply combustible party-starting energy. Across these best songs on Weirdo Thackray marries unsparing lyrics with irresistible rhythms, making the album both starkly honest and thoroughly compelling. The result is a startlingly assured evolution that keeps songwriting at the center amid eclectic, uncategorisable production.
Key Points
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The best song, "Save Me", stands out for its propulsive afrobeat energy that propels the album forward.
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The album's core strengths are candid lyricism about grief and mental health paired with eclectic, irresistible grooves.