Review: The Thermals, The Body, The Blood, The Machine

 I don't remember when or why I downloaded this. Maybe it was after reading a review in Pitchfork.

This is great, riffy alt-power-pop. The vocalist sounds a lot like John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats. The lyrics at times sound like Darnielle's, as well, though more rock'n'roll (less literary). If someone told me this was Darnielle making a pseudonymous rocker to get it out of his system, I might half-believe it.

Actually, the one key thing that that proves this is not Darnielle is the lyrics. They are obviously Christian-inspired. Or maybe not Christian-inspired, but Christian-obsessed. Yeah, I get it now. These guys don't like religion, or whatever. They obviously think about (or want you to think that they think about) religion too much. They're young, I think.

Anyway, this rocks, it's got smart-ish lyrics, and it's worth listening to again. I think my friend Walter would like this, for its riffs and pleasant screams.

Overall assessment: thumbs up