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Album Review
by SaschaS
3-7-2003
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| The Thrills: search 4 a EU thrill, not |
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The Thrills: 'So Much For The City'
(Virgin)
The Thrills are on an American trek
It is a strange situation to find oneself in but The Thrills deemed it important to defend their debut album, ‘So Much For The City’, couple of weeks before its release. Dublin five-piece The Thrills have responded to critics who dismiss their sound as retro, insisting there’s “nothing wrong” with taking inspiration from elsewhere. Frontman Conor Deasy claims that although the band had always been huge fans of numerous classic artists, The Thrills’ music could still be considered contemporary.
Over to Deasy: “We try to take our different influences and mix them together and somehow leave our own stamp at some point in the process. But at the same time, even though we like classic bands, we don’t want to sound like a bunch of old farts - we want to sound like the record is coming out today.”
“Sometimes bands are a bit kind of coy or embarrassed about their influences, but there’s nothing wrong with it. Even the great artists did it - Brian Wilson took a Chuck Berry riff and put Four Freshmen harmonies over it. Everyone builds on what went before them, it’s ok as long as you’re adding something in the process.”
To be honest, wasn’t gonna dwell on it but as the band felt compelled to address the criticism, yeah – it is pure Americana. And, one other point – when Wilson fashioned The Beach Boys’ sound it turned to be a genre-defining! Well, you can argue about it either way but the fact is – six of one and half a dozen of the other. These Irish kids found their spiritual home in the legacy of the Wilson boys’ band, The Byrds, The Eagles, Crosby Stills Nash & Young and recorded an album that is as sunny as a Californian coastline. Sun, skimpy-belles, surf and sex, what could a young man dream of more?
But, if you ever really listened to the music bar the major crap, you will find here not a single note to surprise. And, if that doesn’t bother you, there is no problem. The Thrills spend some time in San Diego and then Los Angeles and are mildly acquainted with the place they idolize. They’ve not lived there long enough to see the downside, they’ve not experienced the dark and restrictive socio-political system based on fear, ignorance and manipulation-by-television but sing about a fictitious ‘ha(e)ven’. That’s the only place it exists – imagination; having travelled all the continents on the planet – there isn’t one on our globe!
‘So Much For The City’ is far from a bad album, these are songs ear-easy, pleasing, good… The Thrills’ previous singles, ‘Santa Cruz [You’re Not That Far]’ (to be re-released in August) and ‘Big Sur’ open the parade (later on joined by more energetic ‘One Horse Town’ but it only goes to mid-paced), soon are followed by eco-pleading ‘Don’t Steal Our Sun’, dreamy-mellow ‘Deckchairs And Cigarettes’, the prime-country cut that is ‘Say It Ain’t So’, with ‘Til The Tide Creeps In’ gently releasing the curtain… But, wait for the bonus track!
‘Hollywood Kids’ and ‘Your Love Is Like Las Vegas’, alike he rest of the songs, are based on Hollywood-ized Americana that only exists on the studios’ backlots. If you are unlucky not to holiday this year, then – this could ease the pain by being a soundtrack to your imaginary trip. Escapism, as Deasy points out, is guaranteed! The only catch is you have to recall some place visited and, no cheating.
7/10
The band also appears at 6pm in London’s Oxford Street Virgin Megastore next Wednesday (09 July) to play live and sign copies of their new album.
Tour Dates:
03 October – University, Glasgow
04 October – Lemon Tree, Aberdeen
05 October – Met University, Leeds
08 October – MDH, Manchester
10 October – Carling Academy, Liverpool
11 October – Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London
14 October – University, Cardiff
15 October – Lemon Grove, Exeter
16 October – Concorde 2, Brighton
18 October – University, Southampton
19 October – Academy 2, Birmingham
20 October – Lead mill, Sheffield
21 October – Waterfront, Norwich
23 October – University, Hull (23)
24 October – University, Lancaster
25 October – Keele University
27 October – Brookes University, Oxford
28 October – University, Bristol
SaschaS
3-7-2003
The Thrills’ album ‘So Much For The City’ is released 30 June 2003 by Virgin Records
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