Search - Thistle :: The Small Hours [Vinyl]

Fifteen years have passed and a band has grown up together. Knowing each other a bit too well, THISTLE s new full-length, The Small Hours brings together the best elements of their past efforts; a solid understanding of all-consuming tone and melody with the challenge of writing more organic songs born of collaborative tensions. Stepping out of well-worn roles to painfully challenge each other, the album brings the listener into a heated conversation between old friends who no longer pull any punches. Sure it s been almost three years since the release of their caterwauling Tired Anchor (on the band s own, Tiberius Records) but the members have been quite busy. A large chunk of that time was spent touring, as well as constructing and wiring their own recording studio Candyland, which now serves as home base. For some, having endless hours to spend twiddling knobs in pursuit of sounds might seem like a nightmare, but for Thistle, it was the answer to their prayers. All the work put in on the front end to create their own facility paid off ten fold by affording them the opportunity to fi nally capture on tape what they d been hearing in their heads for so long. In perfect compliment to the deliberate song writing, the band was able to continue their exacting commitment to refi ning the production elements. Well-explored mixes bring new dimensions and space to the band s sound; locked inside the chassis of a pop song stand towering walls of volume and euphoric blooms of melody. McCarty s drums are solid mooring lines, holding taut and firm against the pressing crush of Weiss bass and the surging waves of guitar that try like hell to drown out Montgomery s tremulous tenor. The record flows as if each song written was just an exercise in preparation for the song to follow. The Small Hours is clearly the best Thistle album to date and the members refuse to take their eyes off the horizon.