Reviews

Before I delve into the review, I first need to pose a thought. In the past couple weeks, I have heard a grand total of eleven bands tell me that they wouldn’t be around if it weren’t for the now no longer defunct, Lifetime.  Some of these bands currently make more money than Lifetime ever has! There are only a handful of groups out there really, who are looked at the way Lifetime is and probably always will be unless of course their next record is a piece of shit. Because of this, I’d like to contact every post hardcore/screamo/emo/ band with members under the age of 18-20 and ask them what inspired them to be in a band.  There’s no doubt in my mind that at least half of them will say Thursday. I’m in no way comparing Thursday to Lifetime, but I am in a way, trying to say that Thursday is the Lifetime of a younger generation. However, being a breakthrough band and finding that the rest of the world has ultimately caught up to you poses a potential problem. Now two albums deep into their major label career the standing question is this: Can Thursday still prove themselves? “A City By The Light Divided” is definitive for this band; and it is remarkable.
 
In 2006, Geoff Rickly is still Geoff Rickly; still urgent, desperate and distinct, his vocals are untouched by the test of time.  For this reason I don’t believe that there is an “Old Thursday” or a “New Thursday” but merely one band with many beautiful sounds and the ability to mix words and notes and rhythms into something really special in a way that makes Thursday a band above most others. Contained in this disc are eloquence, _expression, anger, rage, passion, intrigue and ambiguity.  The record is extremely difficult to listen to; melodic and dissonant, steady and haphazard; purposely flawed and falling just short of perfection.
 
A listen through this album is like wading out into the ocean. “The Other Side of The Crash,” is a little on the weak side; sort of like just getting your toes wet. However, by the time you hear “Autumn Leaves Revisited,” you’re sucked into the under toe and never coming back up.  Some of these songs are catchy as hell like “Counting 5-4-3-2-1” which it’s head bopping chorus that goes “5-4-3-2 What are you waiting for?/The train is catching up/Keep on running/Don’t look back/’Cause it’s 10-9-8-7 everybody’s coming to burn…” “We Will Overcome” features Andrew Everding’s harmonious keyboard styling as well as a choir part towards the end of the song.  A few people have mentioned that the first half of the record doesn’t have the same “punch” as the second half. I have to agree with them.  It’s not until the fifth or sixth song that the guitars thicken, the rhythms turn into heartbeats and you begin to live and breathe this band.  Songs like “Into The Blinding Light,” and “Running From The Rain,” are the Thursday that fans should have been waiting for. 
 
“Autumn Leaves Revisited” may be my favorite Thursday song of all time. What makes this song so spectacular is what things are left out of it; where the musicians know when not to play, the dynamic changes, the weight of emotion and the lyrical content.  Notable lines include “Did you hear the trumpets play the day your father died?/Did violins swell in circles under your eyes?/Did you play the part straight like a march?/Did the drums in the street make the people dance/Or fall to their knees as the sound knocked the leaves off the trees?”
 
Many of these tracks are better than others; there is disarray and the evidence of thoughts smeared around like finger paints.  The imperfection, the confusion and the powerful return create the image of a person; a person who does both harm and good and thinks and feels in certain ways.  This record is a reflection of that person or of any person at all.  Thursday doesn’t have to prove a damn thing anymore; they’ve done that already. This is just a continuation of that.