The first (intentionally) leaked track got me pretty excited about the new Thermals album. Now the rest of the album has made its way onto the internet, and after spending some time with it… I donno, guys. I won’t claim to be the world’s greatest Thermalsologist, but I really liked the last album. Unfortunately, it turns out that if you remove the anger and urgency from their music, you’re left with plodding melodies and lyrics that are occasionally pretty lame (the first verse on the album certainly doesn’t get things off to a very good start).
But I’m still looking forward to their May show at the Black Cat. Here’s hoping they decide to play all their new stuff twice as fast as they recorded it — that could go a long way toward improving things.