artificialbox
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Last Active 04-02-13 8:02 am
Joined 05-17-11

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 Lists
05.04.24 albums that shaped my youth04.27.24 Artificialbox's Record Collection ♦
03.11.24 The Holy Trinity of Risecore01.23.24 more albums like this pls
01.20.24 Thursday Retrospective01.14.24 A VERY ARTIFICIAL 2023
12.10.23 weird list but OK12.02.23 re-discovering the waterfront
10.25.23 five albums for each year of life12.02.22 roasted for having no friends
11.20.22 remembered my password01.27.13 100

Thursday Retrospective

I wrote a full ass essay on this band over on my blog. These are just small snippets covering the individual releases. I especially go into much more detail on No Devolucion in the full blog. Can't be bothered with the character limit in these boxes anymore. You can read it here if you want https://thisworldisablackhole.blog/post/739912114857263104/a-personal-retrospective-of-the-band-thursday
1Thursday
Waiting

Debut record Waiting, while often disregarded as a throw-away non canon event in their discography, was a very necessary step in their trajectory that still holds up with some solid chops of more midwest flavoured emotional rock. There are many moments on this album where I feel like I’m listening to a heavier b-side off of Sunny Day Real Estate’s Diary. It also features a song named after Ian Curtis, which Geoff would go on to cite as one of his biggest influences, and the sounds of Joy Division would only become more apparent further into the bands evolution.
2Thursday
Full Collapse

Waiting would put the band on stage and establish them as more than just facilitators and attendees of live music, but sophomore LP Full Collapse - released in 2001 - would be the sounding board antenna that would launch them into the airwaves forever. Full Collapse was the sound of a much more confident, energetic, and self realized band that knew exactly how to craft a formula to get a crowd moving. It’s clear from the live reaction during the same year of release that it was an instant hit in the underground circuit. Full of scream-your-heart-out lyrics and volatile breakdowns weaved together by brooding emotional passages that will have you rocking back and forth with your eyes closed just to take it all in. Literally not a single weak song on this album and I will take that sentiment to my grave.
3Thursday
War All the Time

2003’s War All The Time would offer a more angry, politically charged take on what they had achieved in 2001 with Full Collapse. I don’t want to gloss over this record, as it had some insanely good cuts on it (my favourite probably being Signals Over The Air), but with the exception of some added synths, it did little to push the bands sound forward. This record was written in just a couple months, and you can feel it. Despite that it was still a competent follow up to their sophomore that kept fans engaged and even earned them a few spots on late night television. They would do one infamous performance of the title track on Conan O'Brien in 2003 where Geoff was apparently so strung out and suffering withdrawals that he could barely see the crowd past the blinding lights. Somehow he still hit every note with ease, the band was a well oiled machine at this point.
4Thursday
A City By the Light Divided

It wouldn’t be until A City By The Light Divided release in 2006 that we would hear a marked shift in their sound. Unlike the album prior, Thursday took their sweet time with this one. This was the record they always wanted to make. The opening track makes it adamantly clear within the first few moments that Thursday have stepped up their game and begun to integrate more of a moodier post punk influence into their sound. The production is slick, the bass is grooving, and atmospheric synths come in to enrich the foundation of melody. Geoff also rolls up his sleeves here and proves that years of touring and honing his craft as a singer was not in vain. The fantastic mixing and vocal layering deserves some credit here as well, but his voice just sounds smoother and more controlled. If Understanding In A Car Crash was the sound of a band picking up the pieces of broken glass, The Other Side Of The Crash is the sound of a band that has fully processed their lived experiences and moved on.
5Thursday/Envy
Thursday/Envy

Two years after the release of A City By The Light Divided, Thursday would release a split in 2008 with the cult classic Japanese post-rock screamo band Envy. This split might have actually been one of my first encounters with the band, but I was a full blown skramz head at the time and approached it as an Envy fan first, thus glossing over Thursday’s side of the split. Once again, this band was perfectly teed up for me - dangled in front of my face like a carrot begging to be chased - but I botched the swing. It’s a shame, because As He Climbed the Dark Mountain is one of the tastiest tracks they ever wrote. So good in fact that they would take it from this split and implant it into their next full length record. They took everything they learned from their previous album and funneled it into creating a dark and angsty track that still has an insanely catchy chorus.
6Thursday
Common Existence

Queue Common Existence in 2009, maybe Thursday’s most challenging and under appreciated release. This album isn’t challenging because they pushed the boundaries of experimentation in their sound, but the exact opposite. Despite working with the same producer as they did on ACBTLD, Common Existence sees the band taking an evolutionary step backwards to create a more aggressive, straight forward punk album. I feel like Common Existence shared the same plight of War All The Time: it was a solid entry in the bands catalog, and that’s all. It was a fair play by the band though, as this was their first album back on an independent label that didn’t feel the need to control or influence the groups output. Thursday just wanted to write some new songs that they could have fun playing in front of a crowd.
7Thursday
No Devolucion

On their monumental final recording No Devolución, we would see the band finally continuing the progression of their sound that was more clearly drawn out on 2006’s A City by the Light Divided. It was an epic swan dive off the deep end into much darker, dense and atmospheric territory. The slick production and electronic post punk inspired soundscapes on ACBTLD would be cranked up to new heights, shedding tears over the illuminated grid of a city skyline at night. This record is really special to me, every time I hear it I’m just astonished at how Thursday was able to catapult their sound in a new direction and create one of the most dynamic records of their career, while still firmly grasping the emotional weight and hardcore ethos of their earlier work. Tracks like A Darker Forest and Empty Glass have moved me to the verge of tears more times than I can count. While tracks like Past and Future Ruins and Turnpike Divides remind the listener that Thursday never lost their edge.
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