Spring Break
New album investigates the theory of 'Common Existence'
Craig Bidiman
Issue date: 2/20/09 Section: Diversions
Thursday
Common Existence
Three stars
Label: Epitaph Records
Check Out: "Resuscitation of a Dead Man," "Last Call," "Subway Funeral," "You Were The Cancer"
Skip: "As He Climbed The Dark Mountain," "Friends in the Armed Forces," "Unintended Long Term Effects"
The first time I saw Thursday live in concert it actually was on a Thursday night.
But that wasn't the most amazing aspect of the evening. The fact that the lead singer, Geoff Rickly, announced he was in the middle of a terrible stomach flu and still did the show was the greatest part of the show. Not because I promote sickness, but because I saw Rickly vomit into a garbage can right before coming onstage for the band's encore, and he still dominated "Autobiography of a Nation," my favorite song by the New Brunswick, New Jersey post-hardcore sextet.
This past Tuesday, Thursday released their latest album "Common Existence," now three years after the release of "A City By The Light Divided" which I felt was quite an achievement for a band that has continually showed much maturity as they progressed from album to album.
The new album is their first release on Epitaph records and is quite reminiscent of old Thursday tricks like songs beginning quite abrasively and toning themselves down in the end ("Resuscitation of a Dead Man" and "Subway Funeral"). There is also the other side of their spectrum where songs take minutes to reach their climax ("Beyond The Visible Spectrum" and "Circuit of Fever").
The highly political themes that have driven Thursday's caravan across the world are still quite prevalent in "Common Existence." Rickly, as passionately as any young insurgent writes in "Friends in the Armed Forces," "Another folded flag to a mourning lover/he was an army of one but they'll find another/and in the fold of the body bag/somebody will check for a heart." Much deliberation has already been placed on this album as their most politically-driven, which shouldn't be too hard to conceptualize given the recent political season coming to an end.
Common Existence
Three stars
Label: Epitaph Records
Check Out: "Resuscitation of a Dead Man," "Last Call," "Subway Funeral," "You Were The Cancer"
Skip: "As He Climbed The Dark Mountain," "Friends in the Armed Forces," "Unintended Long Term Effects"
The first time I saw Thursday live in concert it actually was on a Thursday night.
But that wasn't the most amazing aspect of the evening. The fact that the lead singer, Geoff Rickly, announced he was in the middle of a terrible stomach flu and still did the show was the greatest part of the show. Not because I promote sickness, but because I saw Rickly vomit into a garbage can right before coming onstage for the band's encore, and he still dominated "Autobiography of a Nation," my favorite song by the New Brunswick, New Jersey post-hardcore sextet.
This past Tuesday, Thursday released their latest album "Common Existence," now three years after the release of "A City By The Light Divided" which I felt was quite an achievement for a band that has continually showed much maturity as they progressed from album to album.
The new album is their first release on Epitaph records and is quite reminiscent of old Thursday tricks like songs beginning quite abrasively and toning themselves down in the end ("Resuscitation of a Dead Man" and "Subway Funeral"). There is also the other side of their spectrum where songs take minutes to reach their climax ("Beyond The Visible Spectrum" and "Circuit of Fever").
The highly political themes that have driven Thursday's caravan across the world are still quite prevalent in "Common Existence." Rickly, as passionately as any young insurgent writes in "Friends in the Armed Forces," "Another folded flag to a mourning lover/he was an army of one but they'll find another/and in the fold of the body bag/somebody will check for a heart." Much deliberation has already been placed on this album as their most politically-driven, which shouldn't be too hard to conceptualize given the recent political season coming to an end.
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