Artist: The Thermals
Album: Personal Life
Label: Kill Rock Stars
Release date: September 7
Rating (Skip, Stream, or Buy): Buy
Download: “I Don’t Believe You”
Local show: Monday, September 6 @ Bumbershoot, Broad Street Stage @ 9:15pm
Three things have made The Thermals a consistently winning and likable outfit since their formation in 2002 — brash, punk-y attitude; giddy energy; and an insightful amount of soul. How does the trio’s fifth LP, Personal Life, measure up to those standards? Check out the record’s opening trio of songs: “I’m Gonna Change Your Life” rolls along at a steady pace, but it’s a heavily declarative song, containing repeated statements like, “I’m gonna steal your soul… I’m gonna leave my mark.” There’s the attitude. “I Don’t Believe You,” the album’s first single, thrashes and shouts out its “oh-oh-oh”‘s in an unstoppably infectious manner. There’s the energy. “Never Listen To You” throbs with a chugging guitar and slapping bass as Hutch Harris moodily sings/begs, “I’ll give you all that I have/ I’ll give you everything/ Love me all of my life/ Never listen to me.” And so there’s that soul.
The remainder of Personal Life is a continuing success; it has all the heart of the band’s best album, 2006’s The Body, the Blood, the Machine, substituting political angst with personal anguish. It’s an aptly named record, as all the song titles read like diary entries; the Thermals can get away with being heart-on-sleeve because their lyrics are so smart and effective. That’s true on the doggedly loyal “Only For You,” the teary, self-castigating “Alone, A Fool,” and particularly on the uptempo, very bitter “Your Love Is Strong,” which goes, “Your love is so strong/ It cracks at the slightest touch/ Your love is so strong/ It crumbles to dust.” Burn. But bitterness is reality, and the best love songs, if they’re telling what’s true, aren’t always sweet and dreamy. Personal Life wraps up with another dosage of reality by cycling back to its beginning and concluding — just like anyone who’s ever been in a messy, involved relationship — with “You Changed My Life.”
