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Ebony Bones Is an Art-Punk Soul Warrior on ‘Neu World Blues’

Ebony Bones 'Neu World Blues' Stream Behold a Pale Horse

As a child, Ebony Thomas was a classmate of Amy Winehouse’s at the Sylvia Young Theatre School in London. Each wound up prodigious and dramatic, but the young woman who came to take “Bones” as her surname might have turned out a wee bit freakier. It’s no wonder that the singer-songwriter-producer spent a season or two opening for Cee Lo Green abroad — her hybridized approach to soul, punk, pop, and strange is exactly the kind of thing the Goodie Mobster aims for without instinctively understanding how to hit the mark. Ebony Bones is arty without qualification, odd without apology.

On her new album Behold, a Pale Horse, she never panders to her audience and they’re better for it. The result is more akin to hearing that first TV on the Radio EP all those years ago, except that she wound up working with an Indian symphony on her way to completing the LP.

“Neu World Blues” is one of the shreddier songs on the release, and it opens with a chilling call-back to 1979 cult thriller The Warriors. After that, the track is all jagging guitars, jungle-inspired drums, and fierce vocals that seem to taunt as they go. Listeners, come out and plaaa-aaayyyy.

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