Tori and I are trying
something new on the Wires and Waves blog. It’s a weekly post called, Compare and Contrast. As long as I've known Tori, I loved to discuss music with her. She’s
one of those people that it’s fun to disagree with because she’s as passionate
about her musical convictions as I am. Not to say we always disagree. We also
have lots of common favorite bands and opinions on music too.
We thought it would be
fun for each of us to review the same album and let you, the reader, get two
different perspectives of it.
The first album we
chose to review is a new album by The Thermals released a few weeks ago, Desperate
Ground.
Tori's Review
I’ve been listening to the Thermals for some years now. I
first fell in love with them right around when The Body, the Blood, the Machine
came out in 2006. I heard them on the radio (thanks KEXP) and then saw them at
Bumbershoot. That album and then Now We Can See, released in 2009, have been in
my music listening rotation ever since. I love their raw, post-punk sound and
angsty lyrics packed with symbolism of struggles with religion, sin, and the
human race. And, yes, while most their songs do all sound pretty similar, using
the almost all same chord progression, it’s in good taste, true to the punk
sound. I only recently sat down and listened to their first two albums a couple
months ago, More Parts per Million and Fuckin A. They were good, I especially
enjoyed Fuckin A but not as much as the two albums the followed. The Thermals
seemed to peek at The Body, the Blood the Machine with Now We Can See taking a
close second. They then plummeted with Personal Life. They lost their edge in
that album. There was no punch. They take no stabs at mankind or God. True to
the album’s title, it was Hutch Harris crying about something personal. I
forget what because I got bored and stopped paying attention.
The Thermals’ new album, Desperate Ground seems to be a slow
crawl back to the height that The Body, the Blood, the Machine sits at. Still
some parts where I got a little bored but there’s still a little more kick to
it, a little more angst and vague symbols of war, blood and swords than in
Personal Life. Like in his 2006 and 2009 albums, Harris is still fighting to
live and struggling with his morals. The album started off really strong with
“Born to Kill” which seems to be a bit of a sequel to the track “I Might Need
You to Kill” off Body, Blood, Machine. The album continues with a few other
highs (I Go Alone) and lows (Faces Stay With Me) then really fizzles out with
“Our Love Survives.” And, more so than any other album, these songs really
don’t vary much in sound. All in all, it’s not a horrible album, better than
the previous one. It does give me a little more hope for what’s next. But, when
it comes down to it, I’d much rather listen to any of their first four albums.
Zach’s Review
Before listening to Desperate
Ground I’d never listened to The Thermals. I had no idea what to expect.
First off, all but one song on this album is under three minutes long which
makes for a quick listen of an entire album. This is a rock n roll, borderline
punk rock album. The first and only thing that comes to mind for me when
searching for a comparison are Japandroids. This may be unfair because Japandroids
have set such a high bar for this genre of rock n roll.
Did I love this album? No, but that doesn't mean I hated it.
I liked it but I don’t see myself coming back to it. To me this album
has a few really great songs and a lot of average songs. I thought they mostly
all sounded the same and that’s after multiple listens.
The biggest reason I couldn't get into this album were the
vocals. The lead singer almost speaks sings every song. Sometimes l like that
(mewithoutYou), but it didn't work for me on this album. That’s not to say there’s
no emotion behind his voice. There’s real conviction in his words and the way
he sings, I’m just not crazy about it.
“The Sunset” is the strongest track on the album and is the
song with the most variation from the others, followed by the last track, “Never
Age”.
Truthfully I probably just didn't get it. I usually don’t
listen to this type of music. It’s a little out of my expertise to critique a
band like The Thermals. I’ll admit the most exciting thing to me about them is
that they released this album on Saddle Creek, which used to be my favorite
record label.
