The Thermals: Now We Can See
The Thermals: Now We Can See
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Friday, 03, Apr 2009 01:03
Kill Rockstars, out April 6th.
In a nutshell.
Lyrically mature yet tunefully brilliant
What's it all about?
Fourth album by US alternative pop punksters, formerly signed to Sub Pop and lent a new-found sheen by producer John Congleton (Explosions In The Sky, Polyphonic Spree).
Who's it by?
The Thermals are a three-piece alternative/indie/punk band hailing from Portland, Oregon, sometime centre of the US alternative music scene and home to critically lauded bands such as the Shins and the Decemberists. They specialise in no-frills three minute power-pop, but have lyrically embraced everything from sweary fun times to political commentary on the effect of the far-right.
As an example.
"Now we can see/But images don't stick/Our enemies lay dead on the ground but still we kick." - Now We Can See
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys
In a world that justly rewarded an instinctive understanding of pop dynamics, carelessly brilliant choruses and a refusal to play to the teenage gallery lyrically, this album might be massive. It almost definitely won't be - but deserves to be their most successful yet.
What the others say
"An economical use of language, a keen sense of the rhythms of repetition, and a sly, unobtrusive way with the reoccurring images." - Pitchfork
So is it any good?
For such a perky, superficially slight pop album (35 minutes of big chorused three-minute wonders) it is surprisingly easy to read a great deal into the Thermals' latest. The band jokingly label their new music "totally post-power-pop". In one way this is misleading, in another in is totally apt. The perspectives from which these songs are such are very "post" (post-apocalyptic, post-love, post-life) but the music, insistently tuneful above all else, is most definitely still power-pop.
Songs are sung from the perspective of the submerged (At The Bottom Of The Sea), the cursed (I Called Out Your Name), the dying (We Were Sick), the dead (Liquid In, Liquid Out) and the transcended (When I Was Afraid). The lyrics alternate between despair and resignation, the only glimmer of hope and reason to fight lying in some unattainable other, glimpsed briefly on How We Fade and I Called Out Your Name ("My time was running out/But still I had to shout") but ultimately lost on the final track, You Dissolve.
Yep, there are undoubtedly some BIG themes going on here but thankful, and possibly more importantly, there are also some really BIG tunes going on as well. It is easy to read a lot into the album lyrically but it just as easy to mosh along with a dumb smile. We Were Sick is the most implausibly chirpy song about terminal illness ever penned, hummable by the second line. Now We Can See exhibits a "Wow-way-ow-way-ow" punk simplicity the Ramones would have been proud of before unleashing some of the albums most confident and effective lyrics.
At The Bottom Of The Sea, however, is comparatively turgid after the pop-perfection of the preceding tracks (a Thermals song should probably never last over five minutes) and When We Were Alive, paradoxically, is a little too throwaway. However, throughout the album we are never far away from the kind of invigorating economical guitar blasts and genius key shifts that Ash specialise in. I Let It Go, in particular, is a stand-out pop moment celebrating the joy of release: "I knew I could love and live - I let it go!"
Ultimately, Now We Can See has an immediacy that is hard for even the most casual listener not to love but also a lyrical and thematic depth that will make it easy for more avid listeners to love a lot.
7.5 /10
Steve Braund