Temple

2020 release. Thao & the Get Down Stay Down, the San Francisco-based band fronted by singer and songwriter Thao Nguyen, release their fifth studio album Temple. The album is among Thao's most open and honest work yet, finding her coming out in her public life after a long career in which she kept her queer identity quiet in an effort to avoid turmoil with and alienation from a family and culture she deeply loves. Temple follows Thao & the Get Down Stay Down's 2016 album A Man Alive which was released to widespread critical praise. NPR Music called it a 'brilliant, jarring new album'[Nguyen's] most rewarding work yet,' while Pitchfork raved that it is 'Nguyen's most rhythmically robust, gleefully discordant release to date' and Stereogum called it 'explosive and melodically dense.' Over the past year Thao served as guest host of the acclaimed podcast Song Exploder.