Emma-Jean Thackray - Yellow (2LP)

Emma-Jean Thackray’s debut album, Yellow, lands like a sun ritual you can play at home. Released in July 2021 on her Movementt label in partnership with Warp, it doubles down on the promise of her EPs and delivers a full statement about community, groove, and the sheer joy of sound. Thackray has long blurred the lines between bandleader, beatmaker, and composer, and here she takes full command, producing and arranging while playing trumpet, keys, bass, percussion, and stacking her own vocals into a small choir. It is a spiritual jazz record that loves P-Funk and house as much as it reveres Alice Coltrane, and it moves with an infectious, earthy pulse.

“Say Something” is the hook that first pulled many people in, a chant that begs for voices in the room, not just a thumbs up on a screen. The horn lines rise and fall like a call to action, and the rhythm section keeps nudging you forward. “Mercury” slides in with a shimmer and a low end you feel in your chest, the kind of track that makes as much sense in a sweaty club as it does on headphones. Thackray’s writing is built around mantras, but the repetition feels ceremonial, never lazy. She uses simple phrases to open doors, then lets the harmony and rhythm do the talking.

The palette is rich and tactile. Rhodes chords glow, snares sit soft in the mix but carry weight, and the trumpet cuts through like sunlight on glass. You can hear her fascination with cosmic jazz, yet the record has a party streak that never retreats. “Our People” is basically a community meeting set to a pocket, a reminder that jazz is social music. “Sun” feels like a meditation that forgot to stay still, its chant turning into movement. “Third Eye” digs into modal territory and holds the tension just long enough to make the release feel earned. Nothing here feels overworked, which is impressive given how carefully it is constructed.

Thackray has said she wants music to function like ritual, something shared and uplifting, and Yellow makes good on that idea. The way she layers voices, often her own, creates the sense of a small choir that just appeared in your kitchen. The horns do not grandstand, they converse. There is a humility to the playing, even when the groove goes heavy. If you came to this through the current wave of London jazz, you will recognize the communal energy, but Thackray’s arranging gives it a different glow. She loves short, effective melodies, and she is not afraid to let a vamp run if it spreads warmth.

It sounded great on digital the week it dropped, but Yellow vinyl is where the record really breathes. The low frequencies sit warm and round, the handclaps feel alive, and the trumpet has that brassy bite you want from an analogue chain. If you are hunting for Emma-Jean Thackray vinyl, this is the one you grab first, the one you put on when friends are over and you do not want the room to splinter into side conversations. I first clocked a copy in a Melbourne record store and kicked myself for not buying it on the spot, then did the sensible thing later and went to buy Emma-Jean Thackray records online. If you are in the market for vinyl records Australia has plenty of shops that stock it, and Emma-Jean Thackray albums on vinyl tend to vanish fast.

Critics heard it too. The Guardian praised its joyous blend of spiritual jazz and dancefloor heft, and Pitchfork highlighted the clarity of her vision. Jazzwise dug into the arranging smarts. Those reactions make sense. Yellow is welcoming, but it is not background. It keeps pulling your ear to small choices, the tucked-away percussion, the choral countermelodies, the way a bass figure rephrases the hook in the last pass. The sequencing also flows, tracks linking like a continuous suite without losing identity.

What stays with me is the balance of head and hips. Yellow feels studied, yet it never turns academic. It offers transcendence without floating off the ground. By the time the needle lifts, you feel a little lighter, and you want to flip it back to side A. That is the mark of a keeper, and why Emma-Jean Thackray vinyl sits proudly on shelves next to the classic spiritual jazz that inspired it.