“Weirdo” by Emma-Jean Thackray voted best album of the year

In a year without big names, the choice fell on the extraordinary work of an artist who stands for herself – in the cruel double meaning of the word. Thackray stands out as a multi-talented artist who has recorded 123 instruments in her home and studio alone. But she also stands alone because her music hardly finds any public response. Although she was nominated for the prestigious British Mercury Prize, she rarely appears publicly as a solo artist.

This attitude has its origins in an autistic disorder and the ADHD diagnosis of the musician, who initially became known as a jazz trumpeter. But even as a graduate of Trinity Laban Conservatory, which produced greats of the London jazz scene such as Moses Boyd and Nubya Garcia, she felt out of place among her peers. “I always had the feeling that others knew a set of rules that was closed to me,” she told the Guardian. “I was called a ‘weirdo’. I’ve reclaimed the word.”

“I’m a weirdo,” sings Thackray with the confidence of a soul singer on her second album, without sparing her audience the consequences of this analysis. Their masterfully modernly arranged soul-funk numbers articulate a rollercoaster of emotions. At one point she asks to stay with her, only to demand just as intensely shortly afterwards: Leave me alone. In “Save Me” she wishes to be put back together like something broken lying on the floor in pieces. The confession of a woman who can no longer be helped.

The death of her partner plunges her into deep sadness

The fact that the 36-year-old saw herself sinking into what she sang was a “black hole” was due to the death of her partner. After twelve years together, he died while she was working on Weirdo. Suddenly, the image of the proud outsider that she had conceived was overshadowed by sadness, pain and renewed insecurity. “I felt so lost, I didn’t know who I was anymore.”

After a while in which she was consumed by self-pity and anger, she turned to music to find a way back to herself. For her, making music was the “only way to feel emotionally regulated.” Despite all the despair, their songs celebrate a power that comes from rousing beats and the euphoria of beautiful melodies.

In doing so, she moves far beyond the musical framework that was suggested in her debut album in 2022. In addition to fusion influences ranging from Frank Zappa to Herbie Hancock, she masterfully incorporates the retro-futurism of George Clinton. Still, “Weirdo” stands out from the calculated eclecticism of streaming pop. The album is committed to its own crazy world and represents as much the possibilities of the digital world as its destructive dynamics.

The Soundcheck Award has been presented since 2009. All albums that receive the highest rating of four hits in the “Soundcheck” program broadcast on Radioeins on Fridays qualify. In 2025 there were 28 works from which a 50-member jury of music journalists and initially selected the shortlist of four titles.

The prize is a poster graphic created specifically for each winner by New York artist Otto Steininger. Last year, the Berlin rapper Apsilon was honored for the album “Haut wie Pelz”. Other award winners include The Black Keys, Neil Young, Tocotronic, Bilderbuch, James Blake and Tristan Brusch.