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Avg: 4.0 (256 ratings)
- Date Released: April 7, 2009
- Genre: Rock/Pop
- Style: Rock, Pop
- Label: Kill Rock Stars / Redeye
Pump your fists to it or sit and listen: there is a rewarding storm for you here either way
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We Say...
There aren't many punk rock bands more straightforward, in some ways, than the Thermals; there also aren't many more smart and ambitious. One way to hear the Portland band's fourth album is as their toughest, sturdiest punk record yet, a fusillade of wired, hammering, fist-in-the-air anthems. Listen to it that way, and it's built around its title track, a declaration of victory ("Our enemies lie dead on the ground, and still we kick") with an irresistible "oh-way-oh" hook. But it's also a precisely crafted, despairing concept album that sets up its central conceit with its opening salvo, "When I Died," in which a man tries in vain to save himself by becoming a fish and returning to the ocean.
Recorded as a duo of core members Hutch Harris (singing and guitar) and Kathy Foster (bass and drums) — the same lineup that made an album as Hutch and Kathy before the Thermals began — Now We Can See is packed stem-to-stern with images of reverse evolution: too much water, disintegrating bodies, collective transformation and collective delusion. Harris's lyrics are often in the first-person plural, in the past tense, or both; they're more about the human condition than about a particular persona. They're also as punchy and bitter as a triple espresso, and you can almost smell the caffeine through the speakers as he declaims them.
As always, every Thermals song crams in as many foursquare, head-banging riffs as they can get away with, although this time they've augmented the basement-practice-space arrangements with a few subtle touches, like somebody walloping the bejesus out of a piano in the background of "You Dissolve." The album's even punctuated in the middle by the longest and most restrained Thermals song yet — nearly six minutes of "At the Bottom of the Sea," a slowly respiring variation on the Velvet Underground's "Ocean." That "restrained" is relative, of course: by the end, they've stomped on their fuzzboxes again, and Harris is yowling a repudiation of the air itself. You can hurl yourself around to Now We Can See, but it also rewards sitting very quietly and thinking about it. -
They Say...
The days of the lo-fi, rambunctious Thermals are firmly put to rest on their 2009 album "Now We Can See." The almost violent youthful energy of their first records has slowly changed into something more measured musically, more thoughtful lyrically. The duo's (Hutch Harris on guitar, vocals, and words, Kathy Foster on drums and bass) previous album The Body, the Blood, the Machine was a political, passionate album that successfully accounted for the growing maturation of the band's sound with fire and fervor. This album is a different story. Thanks to the slick production, standard issue chord progressions on songs like "When I Died," some radio-friendly guitar solos and the sometimes pedestrian nature of the lyrics, it's the first record where they sound like professional musicians and not just a couple of rabble rousers making joyous, tortured noise. Still, there are a few songs that manage to overcome the record's flaws and deliver some excitement; "Now We Can See" has an ultra-hooky chorus and a nice, rollicking riff, "You Dissolve" brings in some piano to brighten the sound and most promisingly, "At the Bottom of the Sea" is a restrained, moody ballad that shows a possible way forward for the band.
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| 01. |  |
When I Died |
3:24 |
|
| 02. | |
We Were Sick |
2:47 |
|
| 03. | |
I Let It Go |
3:38 |
|
| 04. | |
Now We Can See |
3:32 |
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| 05. | |
At The Bottom Of The Sea |
5:46 |
|
| 06. | |
When We Were Alive |
1:48 |
|
| 07. | |
I Called Out Your Name |
2:54 |
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| 08. | |
When I Was Afraid |
3:03 |
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| 09. | |
Liquid In, Liquid Out |
1:55 |
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| 10. | |
How We Fade |
3:29 |
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| 11. | |
You Dissolve |
2:44 |
|
11 Total Tracks, 35:00 Total Length
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Credits
- Robert Wechsler - Mastering // John Congleton - Producer // Hutch Harris - Guitar // Hutch Harris - Vocals // Hutch Harris - Lyricist // Hutch Harris - Artwork // Kathy Foster - Bass // Kathy Foster - Piano // Kathy Foster - Drums // Kathy Foster - Vocals // Kathy Foster - Noise // Ben Parrish - Layout Design
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