Indie Music Album Reviews

Laura Cheadle - Time Thief

4/17/2023

Laura Cheadle

Time Thief
self-released; 2023

3.8 out of 5

By Matt Jensen

Laura Cheadle is an artist who apparently got her start in music at the tender age of four. Since then she has performed on stages from NYC to London, appeared on 6ABC’s “Tuned In” as the very first viewer’s choice, the “NBC 10” Show, and the National reality show “Next Great Family Band.” Some of the names she shared the stage with include common household names like The Jonas Brothers, Sister Hazel, The Spin Doctors, Average White Band, Felix Cavaliere’s Rascals, Kasim Sultan, John Oates/Hall and Oates, Terrance Simien, Peter Tork of The MONKEES, Garland Jeffreys, Constantine Maroulis, Ryan Cabrera, Derek Forbes, The Stars From The Commitments, John Sebastian and Marc Broussard to name a few.

She has released a number of albums including Chill and Let’s Get Together For Christmas but today we will be talking about her latest single entitled “Time Thief.” The song starts with a very lush palette. Pads swirl around the stereo mix. It doesn't take long for clean funky guitars, bass and a steady 4/4 beat to enter into the mix. To my ears it sounds like a disco beat. I was hearing some influence from the ’70s and '80s on the verse.

Cheadle has a great voice and she certainly belts it out on the verse. She’s dynamic and seems to easily hit those high notes. The hook comes quickly when she sings “Waiting on a time thief / Waiting on a time thief / Now we’re out of time.” It’s a fun and catchy hook.

The verse returns and this time around we have some more instrumentation as well which sounds like synths and electric piano. There are some moments where Cheadle's voice just soars. I would say the crescendo in the song comes right around the two-minute-and-thirty-second mark where she absolutely belts it out. By this time in the song you should already be dancing. There’s a killer breakdown with pretty incredible cascading vocal harmonies. Towards the end the hook repeats like a mantra which whips into a fervor.

It was easy to understand why Cheadle decided to go with “Time Thief” as the single. It’s not only a catchy song, it's one that will make you want to dance and sing along. I can’t say I was familiar with Cheadle prior to hearing this song but it was a great introduction to her sound. Take a listen.