The Thermals Now We Can See Rating: 8.7 Label: Kill Rockstars Release: April 7, 2009

With their debut on Kill Rock Stars the Thermals had a lot at stake. After two phenomenal LPs on Sub Pop the band lost their drummer Jordan Hudson during the recording of The Body, The Blood, the Machine. A vast departure from Fuckin A’s mostly two minute punk gems, some tracks on TB,TB,TM ran over five minutes in length. While a very good album, it was not the Thermals I knew and loved. It was a long hard change in taste that I eventually came to enjoy for the most part.

Luckily, Hutch & Kathy seemed to have time to reflect a few years and have succeeded in taking the best of both worlds. Perhaps TB,TB,TM eased me into this brand of Thermals, but ultimately the core emotion, simplicity, and pop-sensibility shine. The opener of the album dives into a nervous Hutch for about 15 seconds, then the confidence explodes and a signature simple lead guitar slides you around. Half a minute into the song and you’re into the next stage and Hutch sounds as good as ever. Kathy keeps that tight bass-line smooth as you bounce along with the song. The title track rocks hard as all Thermals singles do. Clocking in as the second longest song on the album, it flies by. The Oh-Way-Oh Oh chorus should bring a smile to your face.

The subject matter of the album is less overtly political or religious, but introspective. You could take many of the ideas Hutch and Kathy convey and relate them to subjects then ponder the insightfulness of it. They’re just not forcing it in your face this time. Being able to put things in perspective sometimes shows you the great parts and the negative ones. I’m glad they’re realists.

By the time side one winds down with its epic At the Bottom of the Sea (Epic for the Decemberists might be an hour long song, anything over 5 minutes is epic for these guys.) It turns into an epic ending that Thurston Moore would be proud of.

Side two kicks off full force and doesn’t let go. “I Called Out Your Name” plows forward and showcases the power of Hutch and Kathy’s vocals together. “When I Was Afraid” could have been a B-side from Fuckin A. “Liquid In, Liquid Out” slows things down and provides the last reality check for the album. It pulls you away from listening on auto-pilot and makes you question what they are really doing, and if “The Thermals just need drugs to survive!” mentality No Culture Icons EP so jokingly told us this in Everything Thermals. Are the Thermals growing up? Have things changed since I was a freshman at WSBU blasting “Time to Lose”?

Before I was done being nostalgic the album was done and I was reaching right over to start it over again.

Looking at past material like Hutch and Kathy and Urban Legends I can’t help but feel that this current Thermals sound is the purest they’ve been. The Thermals may have started out as a fun project to make music, but the current direction seems to hold what I’ve loved while moving in what direction Hutch and Kathy seem most comfortable with. If every song sounded like outtakes from More Parts Per Million I’d probably have lost interest already.

Hopefully the next release will be more timely, because now I’m clamoring for more. This might just be the first album in a line of more introspective gems.

Written by: Bill Boguski on April 7th, 2009 | Filed under Music Reviews