Album Rating: 3.5

Nice to hear more Major/Minor praise

Album Rating: 3.0

Hear me out, and it may be an unpopular opinion among the Thrice purists, but my primary issue with H/E when it was initially released was the track arrangement. H/E seemed to contain two different visions. While the album contained many strong songs, it felt haphazardly pieced together and ultimately incomplete.

After the release of Dead Wake and Open Your Eyes and Dream, I proposed an alternate track order which included both singles. However, H/E still felt incomplete and unfortunately the two additional tracks only complicated H/E.

Similarly, when H/W was released, I was conflicted. Overall, it felt underwhelming and very late to the party. It’s release only seemed justified by the existence of H/E. Although not as obvious, H/W also suffered from the same pieced together track list. However, context and framing are everything and I shortly realized that I was listening to H/E and H/W completely wrong. Although not released as such, H/E and H/W exist within the framework of a single and unified project. The existence of one isn’t possible without the other. Although it’s taken time to realize, H/W is not a continuation of H/E, but in part, belongs to H/E. Likewise, tracks within H/E belong within H/W. Two distinct and excellent Horizons albums exist, but unfortunately, they just aren’t the albums and arrangements given to us by Thrice.

While Thrice masterfully captured soundscapes related to water, fire, air, and earth, East and West are more difficult to categorize with a unifying sound. Part of what elevated the Alchemy Indexes were that each volume was distinctly separate, yet entirely familiar. Going back to H/E and H/W, I believe that if Thrice had recorded all tracks at once, took a step back, and then pieced the puzzle together, the track arrangements within H/E and H/W would be quite different. Furthermore, the rearranged H/E and H/W would stand among Thrice’s best work.

Continued...

Album Rating: 3.0

However, this isn’t the reality that we live in and although Thrice delivered 23 great tracks, they fumbled the recording and release of H/E and H/W, thus creating two similarly confusing albums. I think this is a rare occasion when the artist’s vision was perfect, yet their execution flawed. Because we have all 23 tracks, which theoretically could have been released at the same time (even if we had to wait for the completion of H/W to get both parts), here is my reimagined tracklist for both albums. Both albums would have been released within the span of one year, with H/E being released first, followed shortly by H/W. Both Dead Wake and Open Your Eyes and Dream would have made an official album release, being split between the two albums.

Let me know your thoughts but I’ve established my own version of each album and I’m going to live my life pretending that this is the H/E and H/W we received on the day of each release. I've already created my own album artwork for each album to keeps things in agreement. Also, because I’m an album purist and the tracklist order matters to me, merely rearranging the tracks has elevated my score for many songs (Crooked Shadows and Dandelion Wine to name a few), thus increasing each album’s overall score.

Continued...

Album Rating: 3.0

Horizons/East - Reimagined

1. The Color of the Sky

2. Holding On

3. Robot Soft Exorcism

4. Northern Lights

5. Crooked Shadows

6. The Dreamer

7. Scavengers

8. Gnash

9. Dusk

10. Distant Suns

11. Open Your Eyes and Dream

12. Unitive/East



Horizions/West - Reimagined

1. Blackout

2. Albatross

3. Undertow

4. Dead Wake

5. Dandelion Wine

6. Summer Set Fire to the Rain

7. Still Life

8. Buried in the Sun

9. The Dark Glow

10. Vesper Light

11. Unitive/West

Album Rating: 3.5

Thats a cool tracking. I'll have to give that a shot

Album Rating: 4.5

So if they were released that way and with the tracklist you suggest, what would be your rating?



I will also give it a shot since much thought seemed to be invested for the tracking.

Album Rating: 5.0

Major/Minor is still my fav thrice album

Album Rating: 4.0

I combined the two into a single tracklist called East/West that is an honest to god 5, but I also like the idea of keeping them separate and reorg'ing. I'll have to give the above a spin and see how it influences each album's flow. In the meanwhile here is my East/West album:



1. Blackout

2. Gnash

3. Vesper Light

4. Dandelion Wine

5. Undertow

6. Buried in the Sun

7. Scavengers

8. Distant Suns

9. The Dark Glow

10. Unity/West

Album Rating: 3.0

@Everville2025 H/E would jump from a 3.4 to 4.21 and H/W would jump from a 3.18 to 4.23, which is a significant increase for both albums. As mentioned in an earlier post within this thread, I don't mind most of the tracks on an individual level, but the albums in their original state just don't work and difficult to listen to front-to-back. In my version of H/E, Holding On, Northern Lights, Crooked Shadows, The Dreamer, and Gnash all increase because their placement actually makes sense and either drive the album forward or create an appropriate transition point. In my version of H/W, Blackout, Albatross, and Dandelion Wine benefit as well.

@Sowing. I recall discussing the order of H/E in 2021 with you as well. I think we share many common thoughts and interests in music and I always enjoy your reviews. If I condensed everything to a single album it would be quite similar to yours, but would be about 14 tracks total and Gnash would have to be separated from Blackout, which was a major issue I had with the original release of H/W. However, I felt that removing approximately half the tracks to make a single album wasn't ideal and that I could find a way to make each song valid within the context of the Horizons project.

@sowing may give your tracklist a shot instead of listening to the new one. Didnt spend much time with the last one but remember it being alright.

Album Rating: 3.0

Checked east today and god damn they really don’t care about production these days huh

Album Rating: 4.0

This album got the scraps of my attention while I was digesting AFI and Taylor but having spent more time with it, it is much better than I initially thought. A worthy follow up to East.

Why are you wasting your time with Taylor still? She fell off a cliff post-1989

Album Rating: 4.0

Nah, her folklore onwards output has some of her best.

Album Rating: 3.0

@bc013 I tried your tracklist and while I would still change a few songs here and there I liked how you incorporated the b-sides. I also agree with your overall sentiments this should have been either a double album or released separately (close in release dates) taking in account the full body of work. The b-sides really enhance this batch of songs significantly.



With that said, I feel production is lacking in both releases (though H/E is a bit better) and the songwriting is weaker when compared to both the Alchemy Index and Beggars, which were also entirely self-produced.

Album Rating: 3.5

I can't fault the way those albums sound, I don't understand this recurring complaint.

Album Rating: 3.5

My combination of East and West that would make a 5 is



1. Color of the Sky

2. Scavengers

3. Undertow

4. Summer Set Fire to the Rain

5. Still Life

6. Gnash

7. Open your Eyes and Dream

8. The Dark Glow

9. Northern Lights

10. Dead Wake

11. Vesper Light

12. Unitive/West

Album Rating: 3.0

@LelanndAB That's actually a pretty good East/West tracklist, but how are you going to leave "Distant Suns" out if its one of the best moments here?



I might bump my rating after listening to this in the following order, it made more sense to me:



1. Blackout

2. Gnash

3. Albatross

4. Crooked Shadows

5. Distant Suns

6. Undertow

7. Holding On

8. Dusk

9. The Dark Glow

10. Vesper Light

11. Unitive/West

East sounds fantastic what are we doing here

Colour of the Sky on some good headphones is cinema

Album Rating: 3.0

@bananatossing, thanks for checking it out. I'm sure that my order isn't perfect but I tried to strike a balance between Thrice's vision and my own. Hence, the bookends for each album stayed the same and I kept certain tracks together, such as Summer Set Fire and Still Life. I also tried to keep certain tracks at their same position when possible, like Northern Lights as track 4.

However, I'm sure that I'll probably alter the order a bit with more time, but I feel pretty good with the current lineup. I'll probably make a list later which goes into greater detail why each song is placed accordingly.

Also, I agree with everyone who has claimed that listening on a good set of headphones for both H/E and H/W is essential. With a good set of headphones, my favorite recordings include The Color of the Sky and Undertow, but several other great tracks exist as well.