The Thrills third album is sure to please fans of it’s laid back alternative California style. The songs are nice three minute jangle gems with lead vocalist Conor Deasy warbling away. The Beach Boys inspiration from the first album has been replaced by a mash up of the Cure and the Byrds. “The Midnight Choir” is a good example of this, with a killer hook in the chorus. The following tune “This Year” is a great little jangle number and the catchy “Nothing Changes ‘Round Here” will have you bobbing your head up and down to the beat. They also recall the poppier moments of Limbeck here as well. If you love jangle pop you’ll be perfectly happy with this album. For some, it takes time to get used to Deasy’s vocal style that sounds like the bastard child of Nick Drake and Kim Carnes. Unlike the last effort of the Thrills, the melodies here are very sharp and the band sounds tighter than ever before. It seems like this is a push for more commercial success and “I Came All This Way” sums up what the band feels at this point “I came all this way just to say that’s not what I want… now I know I’ll never be someone else.” It’s a subtle statement of defiance that rings true in the harmonies here. The album has three ballads all toward the end, and the sweeping “I’m So Sorry” does an excellent job wringing out the emotion. So far this is the strongest effort from a major label I’ve heard in months, so give it a chance.
The Thrills | MySpace | itunes
Listen to “Nothing Changes ‘Round Here”