Emma-Jean Thackray has never played by anyone else’s rules. With Weirdo, her deeply confessional second album, she doesn’t just ignore the rules entirely, she blows them up. It’s Thackray’s most personal work to date, a radiant and defiantly eccentric voyage through grief, neurodivergence, joy, and survival.

Written, performed, produced, arranged, recorded, and mixed entirely by Thackray in her South London flat, Weirdo is the sound of an artist completely in her own world, and fully in command of it. Drawing inspiration from grunge, P-Funk, jazz, pop, punk, and everything inbetween, she’s come up with a record as unpredictable as it is exhilarating.

A standout track “Wanna Die” captures Weirdo's emotional duality in full technicolor. It’s real and wrenching, yet oddly joyful, as frenetic drum loops and lush jazz harmonies collide with private journal lyrics that wrestle openly with mortality and mental health. “The lyrics to this are very diary-esque, like confessional poetry,” Thackray explains. “When you center in on the silliness, it’s easier to speak on your pain, and easier for others to hear it.” The song’s video, co-directed by Thackray and Nick Suchak, pays surreal homage to ‘70s TV performance shows with a retro set, saturated hues, and Thackray performing as every member of her band. Celebrated British broadcaster Gilles Peterson even pops up as a grinning host. It’s absurd, joyful, and deeply moving like the track itself.

Conceived during a period of intense self-reflection and shaped by the devastating loss of her long-term partner in early 2023, the album dives into the darkness with eyes wide open. Songs like “Black Hole,” featuring Reggie Watts, and “It’s Okay” with Kassa Overall lean into themes of isolation and change, while never losing Thackray’s sense of mischief.

There are echoes of Meshell Ndegeocello, Kate Bush, and even Nirvana here, but Thackray remains elusive and uncategorizable. One moment she’s channeling spiritual jazz, the next she’s bouncing off the walls with punk-pop glee. It's an album that’s as complex as the person behind it. A classically trained trumpeter from a working class West Yorkshire background, Emma-Jean Thackray’s rise has been anything but conventional. From self-releasing her 2016 EP Walrus to Jazz FM Award-winning success with 2021’s Yellow, she’s carved out a space entirely her own. She isn’t here to fit in, she’s here to make sure you remember what it sounds like when someone truly doesn’t care what you expect.