Thelma Plum is an example of what happens when an artist is given time to develop. Her earliest releases, such as 2012 debut single “Father Said” and the plaintive title track of her 2013 EP Rosie, were built on a foundation of acoustic folk, her vocals boasting a pronounced Australian twang. In the years leading up to 2019 debut album Better in Blak, however, the Brisbane-born singer evolved into a multilayered songwriter, adding elements of alt-pop and indie rock to her sound. A deft lyricist, she expertly employs humor and a witty rhyming couplet to strike a hammer blow–witness “Woke Blokes,” a scathing indictment of men who claim to be morally righteous when they’re anything but, with Plum singing, “He’s like, kill the boy down the road who hurt the girl real bad/Unless he is my friend or plays in my favorite band.” The proud Gamilaraay woman also interrogates the Indigenous experience in Australia. “Homecoming Queen” reflects on how she never saw herself represented in mainstream Australian media while growing up, while addressing the fact it wasn’t long ago that Aboriginals were regarded as flora and fauna, not people (“In 1967 I wasn’t human/And in 1994 I was born”). Plum’s warm yet emotionally fragile vocals have proved a welcome foil for artists such as Alice Ivy (“Ticket to Heaven”) and Indigenous rapper Briggs, for whom she provides the haunting refrain on the ominous “Go to War.”