Thursday - Common Existence

Thursday - Common Existence

Release date: February 17, 2009

Early in their career, Thursday were champions of their genre.  In the early 2000s, the up-and-coming post-hardcore scene found one of their first mascots in the New Jersey-based band (a quintet at its inception, now expanded to six members with the addition of a keyboardist), and Thursday played no small part in bringing the genre to fame - and, yes, infamy.  Now, the better part of a decade after their big break, 2001’s Full Collapse, Thursday may have passed their genre-leading torch on to other bands, but they continue to put out music in the tradition of their heyday.

Unfortunately, it seems their age might be starting to show.  2009’s Common Existence sounds, in a word, tired.  The new material lacks the urgency that characterized their earlier output.  Not that they’ve softened, necessarily; many tracks here are just as heavy and furious in intent as anything they’ve done in the past.  But nothing really sticks with you.  Geoff Rickly’s trademark wailing voice sounds thinner than ever, which doesn’t help matters, but more important than his tone quality are his melodic hooks, and those are few and far between.  The band is also hindered by unusually low-fidelity production, which leaves them sounding muddy and poorly defined.  This sonic aesthetic works for some groups, but Thursday’s brand of melodic post-hardcore could benefit from much more clarity and precision.  As it is, the blaring mass of drums, guitar, and bass, with Rickly’s piercing vocals on top of everything (yes, that keyboardist is still there, though he’s practically inaudible for most of the album), thunders by in under 45 minutes, leaving you with a vague impression of having listened to something but providing little memorable substance.  Instead of exhilarating, it’s simply exhausting.

There are a few tracks that seem to click, though.  When the band is truly firing on all cylinders, the material stands out, as on the over-far-too-quickly “Unintended Long Term Effects.”  That song in particular suggests that there may still be some of the old Thursday left, and that if they can harness that immediacy again, they might release another great album.  But Common Existence, whether the band was reaching too hard for new songwriting ideas or whether they simply ran out of them, fails to live up to its creator’s own legacy.

2.5/5

Standout Tracks:

• “Unintended Long Term Effects”
  
• “Last Call”
  
• “Friends In The Armed Forces”