Photos courtesy of Aviva Yael and P.M. Chen, from their book "No Regrets..."
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Greatest Pure Rock Song Ever?
For whatever reason, I had Buckcherry's "Lit Up" in my head earlier this week. I was listening to it on the train earlier this evening when I was struck with a thought: This song is more rock&roll than I remembered. WAY more. So I put this question before the jury: Could "Lit Up" be the greatest pure rock song ever?
The Argument For
Running time -- 3:35
Number of guitar solos -- 3
Lyrical theme -- blowing coke
Vaguely bluesy lead guitar? Yes
Distorted call and response vocals? Yes
Awkward radio edit -- "Tell me, are you (getting) high?"
The Argument Against
This is their lead singer:
The Argument For
Running time -- 3:35
Number of guitar solos -- 3
Lyrical theme -- blowing coke
Vaguely bluesy lead guitar? Yes
Distorted call and response vocals? Yes
Awkward radio edit -- "Tell me, are you (getting) high?"
The Argument Against
This is their lead singer:
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Thoughts On The New Thursday Record
It’s a shame to have to write an I-liked-their-early-stuff-better review for the new Thursday record. I like this band too much to be able to sum up their body of work with a cliché. Unfortunately, it is appropriate.
The problems with “Common Existence” did not become apparent to me until I sat down with my headphones and compared the record side-by-side with “Full Collapse” and “Waiting.” Here comes another cliché: Their new stuff is overproduced. To get the spacey textures on “Time’s Arrow,” the number of overlaid vocal tracks push double digits, and the acoustic guitar track is played backward. Compare that to the intro to “Standing on the Edge of Summer,” from “Full Collapse,” where the illusion of sonic depth comes from turning down one guitar and running the other through a cheap effects pedal. There is a humble nobility to keeping it lo-fi. The real issue with the production, though, is Geoff Rickly’s vocals. Why so much reverb? He sounds as if he is singing up to us from the bottom of a well, and anyone who has seen Thursday live would say that is completely incongruent with his stage persona. Geoff Rickly live is in your face (at least if you are no more than five-deep at the front of the stage), and this was reflected in the vocal mix of the older records. Sure, he missed as many notes as he hit, but there was an immediacy to everything he was singing about. On a fundamental level of verbal communication, a balance must be struck between what you say and how you say it. The polished vocals on “Common Existence” tip that balance toward the superficial.
There is a bigger cliché at work here, though. You can hear it in that big money-shot chorus in “Love Has Led Us Astray.” You can hear it in the “breathe in, breathe out” breakdown in “Resuscitation of a Dead Man.” Hell, you can read it on the tracklist: Thursday are trying too hard to sound like Thursday. This is a consequence of the success they have had, and they as a band appear to be struggling with it. The breakdowns feel forced. The screams make them sound like caricatures of themselves. Granted, how many bands have also put out a Thursday record since 2001? As far as missteps made as a result of success, trying to sound like yourself is much less a sin than, say, including sitar interludes or writing songs about meditating high atop some Himalayan mountain. Perhaps, too, the band may have just found the boundaries of their own sound. How much mileage can you get out of screams, syncopated drum blasts and lyrics full of vague imagery, especially when so many others are copying it?
The problem with the their-old-stuff-was-better argument is its historical bias. To say that I like Thursday is a massive oversimplification. I am invested in them. “Full Collapse” was the soundtrack to my senior year in high school. I’ve seen this band live more times than I can begin to count. I cannot disentangle my personal history from some of those earlier songs. What’s more, my two favorite tracks on “Common Existence” are “Love Has Led Us Astray” (easily the most accessible song) and “As He Climbed The Dark Mountain” (the song I already knew because it was previously released on the split with Envy). The way I framed my entire analysis of this record has to be called into question.
Still, “Common Existence” is not a bad record. Most Thursday fans should be able to play it straight through and enjoy most of what they hear. Some of the songs are good; some are not. Some of the songs sound inspired; some do not. In fact, those last two sentences are exactly how you could describe “War All the Time” and “A City by the Light Divided.” This is a typical later-career Thursday record. And as much as it pains me to say this, Thursday are on track to become another one of those bands that couldn’t quite match their early success.
The problems with “Common Existence” did not become apparent to me until I sat down with my headphones and compared the record side-by-side with “Full Collapse” and “Waiting.” Here comes another cliché: Their new stuff is overproduced. To get the spacey textures on “Time’s Arrow,” the number of overlaid vocal tracks push double digits, and the acoustic guitar track is played backward. Compare that to the intro to “Standing on the Edge of Summer,” from “Full Collapse,” where the illusion of sonic depth comes from turning down one guitar and running the other through a cheap effects pedal. There is a humble nobility to keeping it lo-fi. The real issue with the production, though, is Geoff Rickly’s vocals. Why so much reverb? He sounds as if he is singing up to us from the bottom of a well, and anyone who has seen Thursday live would say that is completely incongruent with his stage persona. Geoff Rickly live is in your face (at least if you are no more than five-deep at the front of the stage), and this was reflected in the vocal mix of the older records. Sure, he missed as many notes as he hit, but there was an immediacy to everything he was singing about. On a fundamental level of verbal communication, a balance must be struck between what you say and how you say it. The polished vocals on “Common Existence” tip that balance toward the superficial.
There is a bigger cliché at work here, though. You can hear it in that big money-shot chorus in “Love Has Led Us Astray.” You can hear it in the “breathe in, breathe out” breakdown in “Resuscitation of a Dead Man.” Hell, you can read it on the tracklist: Thursday are trying too hard to sound like Thursday. This is a consequence of the success they have had, and they as a band appear to be struggling with it. The breakdowns feel forced. The screams make them sound like caricatures of themselves. Granted, how many bands have also put out a Thursday record since 2001? As far as missteps made as a result of success, trying to sound like yourself is much less a sin than, say, including sitar interludes or writing songs about meditating high atop some Himalayan mountain. Perhaps, too, the band may have just found the boundaries of their own sound. How much mileage can you get out of screams, syncopated drum blasts and lyrics full of vague imagery, especially when so many others are copying it?
The problem with the their-old-stuff-was-better argument is its historical bias. To say that I like Thursday is a massive oversimplification. I am invested in them. “Full Collapse” was the soundtrack to my senior year in high school. I’ve seen this band live more times than I can begin to count. I cannot disentangle my personal history from some of those earlier songs. What’s more, my two favorite tracks on “Common Existence” are “Love Has Led Us Astray” (easily the most accessible song) and “As He Climbed The Dark Mountain” (the song I already knew because it was previously released on the split with Envy). The way I framed my entire analysis of this record has to be called into question.
Still, “Common Existence” is not a bad record. Most Thursday fans should be able to play it straight through and enjoy most of what they hear. Some of the songs are good; some are not. Some of the songs sound inspired; some do not. In fact, those last two sentences are exactly how you could describe “War All the Time” and “A City by the Light Divided.” This is a typical later-career Thursday record. And as much as it pains me to say this, Thursday are on track to become another one of those bands that couldn’t quite match their early success.
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