A Man Alive is Thao & The Get Down Stay Down’s fourth album. It is another amazing sonic next step for the band following up on the success of We The Common (2013), which was largely inspired by Thao’s volunteer work with the California Coalition for Women’s Prisoners, A Man Alive is an evolution in both subject matter and sound. Thao says: “I wanted A Man Alive to be beat- and bass-driven—rather than guitar-based – expanding upon the hip-hop influences of the previous record. A Man Alive is more instrumental, more riff- and loop-centric, and has more manipulated sounds.†The Get Down Stay Down are at their best on this record, and Thao herself experimented with programming beats for several tracks complementing the live drums played on every song.