Review of WAR ALL THE TIME Album by Thursday

Thursday - WAR ALL THE TIME

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THURSDAY - WAR ALL THE TIME - album review

Vocalist Geoff Rickly has Robert Smith's 'stuffed-nasal' quality about him. There's a lot of angsty shouting going on, and a lot of the oh-so-popular polished distortion, well favoured by the big labels (these guys are on the island / def jam union), but unfortunately that's about it.

The simple fact is that there's just nothing special here, either in the playing, writing or the production. They've given a huge list of influences in the sleeve, including New Found Glory, AFI, Dashboard Confessional and Jimmy Eat World. Like JEW, they can come across as the type of band who obviously love listening to music, wearing their influences openly and proudly, but this openness sometimes ends up with them sounding a bit

THURSDAY - WAR ALL THE TIME - album review

stale and clichd, rather than like a great mix of their favourite bands, as it seems they're aiming for. That lovely throaty primal scream, championed by Mr. Manson & Slipknot (ad infinitum) is really starting to sound a little over worn now, besides the little problem that he doesn't even do it all that well. More like an afterthought: "Ooh, and these guys do that cool screaming thing. Lets throw a few of them in". The screams go along with the usual mix of openly played minor power chords with the occasional break to emphasise some random part / melody, but if you ask me that sort of thing only really works if the band are really tight - think Rage Against the Machine. There are also apparently keyboards on just about all the tracks, but it seems the only one you can hear it on above the noise of the guitars is at the end of 'M. Shepard' - and even then, don't worry, as they're promptly drowned out again before the track actually finishes. Trying to stamp their 'authority' all over the place, no doubt.

The lead single, 'Signals Over The Air', stands out quite obviously as the best song, mainly because it has a little hook: "on the radio". Not bad, although it still suffers from really boring guitar & drum parts - although at least they make a bit of an effort on this one. There's the obligatory quiet track ('This Song Brought to You by a Falling Bomb'), which really doesn't show his voice as well as it could do considering the high polishing of (albeit unoriginal) production, and as there aren't really any other standout tracks, I'm slightly worried by the fact that their only saving grace is that their vocalist 'sounds-a-bit-like-the-guy-from-The-Cure'.

2/5

Mark Danson

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