The Thermals - We Disappear

If history’s any guide, taking Hutch Harris’ tweets at their word is perhaps not always a great idea - he usually seems in irreverent mood - but when he began to drop subtle hints that The Thermals’ tour in support of their last album, 2013’s ‘Desperate Ground’, might be their last, it was hard not to feel mildly disconcerted. After all, there’s nobody who does melodic punk quite like Harris and Kathy Foster; his deadpan vocals over those fuzzy guitars is the sound of a band who’ve evidently neatly carved out their own niche.

The world would be a little quieter without The Thermals, but any such fears have hopefully been proved unfounded by the arrival of ‘We Disappear’, which has them reconvening with Chris Walla - once of Death Cab for Cutie - who handles production duties. Walla is a dab hand at keeping mid-fi indie records warm and crisp and it’s clear that he has an intricate understanding of what makes The Thermals tick; ‘The Great Dying’, accordingly, sounds suitably epic, huge reverb washing over dramatic percussion, and ‘My Heart Went Cold’ fizzes with nervous energy.

Harris has always been a sucker for issue-based lyricism and ‘We Disappear’’s themes are largely born out of his fascination with social media and the apparently innate urge to leave behind a digital footprint when we die. He tackles the topic in typically abstruse fashion throughout, and it works best when set against the preppy, lively guitars that have always been The Thermals’ calling card; the boisterous ‘Hey You’ is a standout, as is breezy pop gem ‘Always Never Be’. Closer ‘Years in a Day’, a woozy comedown of a track that laments the pace at which life passes Harris by, serves as a nice reminder that The Thermals can do empathy as well as they do energy - on all fronts, this is a stirring return to form.