The Thermals – Now We Can See

Previously darlings of the ever fantastic Sub Pop, it’s difficult to find anyone who’s got a band thing to say about The Thermals. And the chances are, as a reader of This Is Fake DIY you’ll have nice things to say about them also, for this three piece from Portland excel at making that brand of delightful fuzzy power pop that’s lo-fi, slack and catchy as hell that we’re all really rather fond of.

We’d better find something negative to mention about ‘Now We Can See’, (The Thermals third or fourth record, depending on who you ask) so let’s get it out of the way early: there’s not a lot of variety on offer here. But to hell with that, this album is filled with an energy that can only really be captured when a band is recorded as dirtily as this. There’s no adornment and no after effects put on this music and the songs speak for themselves.

Eleven songs are ran through in the thirty five minutes of this album, and it’s difficult to pick out favourites, but try we must and so will give mention to opener ‘When I Died’, seemingly a song about wanting to take several steps back along the evolutionary ladder, the Ramonesy pop of ‘When We Were Alive’ with it’s chorus of “You shoulda seen us in our prime” and “I Called Out Your Name”, even if only for it’s guitar part. We do wonder if anyone else hears Weezer’s ‘Sweater Song’ in ‘How We Fade’, though.

With too many bands and acts at the moment making their pop shiny and friendly or attempting to branch out into prog weirdness (we’re looking at you, Decemberists), it’s good to find albums such as this and bands that are still making the type of music that we got into this game for. Like a three piece Los Campesinos! or The Cribs without the terrible attitude, The Thermals are for keeps.