Thursday/Envy – Split
Temporary Residence Records

Rating:  

Thursday is an important band for me. They got me into their genre (whatever you want to call it) in the first place, and were a primary source of influence for a lot of music I wrote in high school. Full Collapse and, to a lesser extent, War All The Time are some of my favorite records of all time. They let me down with A City By The Light Divided though, in a way that was hard to recover. After hearing about all their troubles with Island/Def Jam and the b-sides album they did with Victory, I had my faith briefly restored. This release, however, falls tragically short of what a renewed and reinvigorated Thursday should sound like. They show signs of promise, too – sort of like the unreleased/new tracks on Kill The House Lights – they just don’t really go anywhere or deliver anything substantial. They lack the urgency (and indie production value) that I had previously associated with them. The pseudo-electronic influence could be cool, though, if explored properly. Kind of reminds me of 65daysofstatic, but more…band-y.

Envy was a breath of fresh, Japanese air when I’d first heard of them back in high school. A Dead Sinking Story was fierce enough to put a lot of comparable American bands to shame. In all honesty, I was kind of hoping their presence on this split would inspire Thursday to not hold anything back, but it might have backfired and brought Envy down a notch or two. They’re still interesting and more innovative than they’re given credit for, but this feels like less than their best. The songs seem more mechanical and formulaic than their post-rock influence should allow, and this seems to reduce the feeling, the intensity that Envy was known for. It’s still very good on the surface, but subtly less enjoyable. I should mention though that these songs sound better on good speakers or, better yet, nice headphones.

This review is courtesy of Mike Moschetto – http://mikemoshreviewsrecords.wordpress.com