Thursday

In the great Garden state of New Jersey, Thursday is the younger generation's answer to Bruce Springsteen. Now, don't try and stifle your laughter. There's a reason for comparing a band of dudes who grew up on hardcore with the icon that is the Boss, and it's not just because they all hail from Dirty Jer-Z.

Thursday, however unintentionally, became the voice of their generation, since their music was as honest as open diary pages. The band's use of screamy, slightly off-key vocals, artfully intelligent lyrics, which spoke volumes to the "kids," and harmonically distorted guitars allowed them to gain favor in the hardcore, post-hardcore and emo scenes. Thursday stradled the line that so many bands couldn't balance themselves upon. That is how they are similar to their fellow statesman Springsteen; they speak to and understand their audiences because they're not so far removed from their listenership.

Thursday fans accept and believe every impassioned word that Geoff Rickly screams. The imperfect intensity of the band's earliest recordings garnered them fans who will remain with them for life. After a two album stint on a major label, the band has rebounded with a new album, Common Existence, and a new label home at Epitaph. Despite the business that surrounds the band, Thursday still adhere to the punk rock and hardcore scene aesthetics. The most appealing quality of the band's massive riffs has always been the brilliant sloppiness, which still exists in spades on Common Existence. Rickly retains a commanding voice that sounds a little processed, but the power of what he says and how he says it is never diluted.

"Resuscitation of a Dead Man" fires on all pistons, while "Last Call" and "Friends in the Armed Forces" drag out that tinny, left-of-center, noisy intensity and integrity that the proto-screamo bands used as their blueprint. "Beyond the Visible" and "Time's Arrow" are artier numbers that are more complicated and polished than anything the band has ever done and this shift calls to mind The Deftones, when that band made the switch from noisy to spacey and pretty. Common Existence, ultimately, is more later-era Radiohead than it is Rites of Spring.

Thursday were and are one of those bands that always steers clear of trends. As a result, the music is always birthed from an honest place that the disaffected youth can and will relate to. It doesn't matter that these Jersey boys have gotten older and wiser, or that music isn't oozing with as much youthful aplomb. While Common Existence may not be as "genre-definitive" as 2001's Full Collapse, it still moves its listener in an entirely different way.

— Amy Sciarretto
02.22.09

Although initially a leading light in the screamo/post-hardcore scene, Thursday began to transcend that movement in 2006, when A City by the Light Divided introduced an emphasis on dynamics and melodic nuance to the band's sound. Three years later, Thursday continue to buck trends with Common Existence, another melody-focused album cut with longtime Flaming Lips producer Dave Fridmann. Common Existence bears some trademarks of the band's classic screamo assault, but those aspects pale in comparison to Fridmann's own contributions, which help replicate the massive, multi-layered production found on his recent projects (including MGMT's Oracular Spectacular and Longwave's Secrets Are Sinister). Keyboardist Andrew Everding plays a key role here, his synthesized chords laying a gauzy framework for many songs, while frontman Geoff Rickly shows a good deal of restraint as he emphasizes singing over screaming. His voice sounds downright epic during "Circuits of Fire," where alternating time signatures and walls of guitar distortion find some middle ground between Brit-pop, emo, and (bizarrely enough) the anthemic prog of Dream Theater. Elsewhere, "Time's Arrow" pairs booming snare hits with ethereal harmonies, while songs like "Resuscitation of a Dead Man" and "Last Call" throw a bone to fans of the band's earlier work. In keeping with Thursday's evolution into a fierce alternative rock group, Common Existence is a somewhat streamlined release, with Rickly's screaming vocals only serving to punctuate the brief moments between more melodic segments. Critics of A City by the Light Divided will surely find fault with this album, but Common Existence is largely an enjoyable record that gives as much attention to mood and melody as muscle and might. ~ Andrew Leahey, All Music Guide