Review Summary: The Body, the Blood, The Machine by The Thermals is an amazing beautiful, angry, sarcastic, LEGENDARY album. The only bad thing about it is that it ends.
" God reached his hand, down from the sky, he flooded the land then he set it on fire!
He said FEAR ME AGAIN, Know I'm your father, remember that no-one can breathe underwater!"
By that time I already had the shivers.
Those lines kickstart Here's Your Future, the first track on The Body, The Blood, The Machine, the third dynamic album by
The Thermals .
Here's Your Future is an amazing song to open an album. It has amazing guitar bits that just beg to be blasted at disrespectful volumes on a friend's father's expensive speakers. The lyrics are amazing, angry, ironic and yet somehow beautiful comments on Christian religion. That's generally the theme throughout the album.
The next track, I Might Need You To Kill is slightly less upbeat. Hutch's vocals and the lyrics add an amazing edge to a tune that could possibly have become any indie-rock song, but instead tun into something of a comment on human nature and suppression, still using semi-sarcastic. references to the Christian bible.
The drums then fade into an opening for An Ear For Baby, an equally amazing tune with a similar message. " Good luck getting God on the phone, good luck getting even a tone! Good luck getting over the fence, good luck putting even a dent, in the mission, THE Dream, THE BODY, THE BLOOD, THE MACHINE!" The guitar solo about halfway is extremely loveable.
Once again, the song fades out, and in comes, BOOM..... A Pillar Of Salt, the alter-ego to the song about to follow, with almost the exact same chords arranged differently.All about sin and no shame. " We we're born to sin, we don't think we're special sir, we know everybody is!". Hutch's vocals might be known as shout-ish but somehow they maintain a beautiful almost harmony. This is very apparent in A Pillar Of Salt, where his singing is very subtly emotional.
And in comes the Alter-Ego to A Pillar Of Salt, Returning To The Fold. The guitar is super similar to emphasize this, except its much slower, and this time the theme is regretting sins and forgiveness. The guitar just after the second "verse" is amazingly saturated and, well, awesome.The guitar once again leads out of the song.
Test Pattern comes next, my favorite song on the album. A perfect song. Started with comforting drums and melancholy beautiful bass and guitar, all coming together, and then the most melodic you'll ever hear Hutch sing an amazing metaphor for a love song about no commitment. " So you can call this a test pattern, so you don't have to commit, so you can change any day", says the chorus. For some reason this almost reduces me to tears. The bass in the intro to the next verse is amazing. Hutch goes on to sing another heartfelt verse and the chorus once again before a bass and guitar session ending off the song.
St.Rosa and The Swallows starts with a much angrier and more comfortably " The Thermals " guitar bit.
More amazing lyrics from Hutch Harris and amazing drumming and bass by miss Kathy Foster.
I'm running out of good adjectives here! The chorus and verse finish and Hutch starts an amazing extro, which eventually ends the song off into , "I will hold you tight, through the cold days and the frozen nights...... When its COLD! COLD! COLD!" , before it fades out into a stunning hum of guitar and bass.
"Two By Two, LORD We'll Take em! Two by two, we'll lead them to the bedroom floor, we'll eat em in the cold of morning!" I can't say much for this song that I haven't already said. Religious sarcasm? Tick! Beautiful vocals from Hutch? Tick! Amazing instrumentals from Kathy? Tick! Amazing Lyrics? Tick! This album is so amazing and consistent that I can't help using the same words over and over.
Power Doesn't Run On Nothing. The 9th track. " We're MORE EQUAL, We'll move your people! off the planet! Cos Goddamnit we need the fuel!". The angriest track on the album, and the second last.
I Hold The Sound. The last track on an absolute lekker ride of an album! And you can tell it's the last track. " The light out, we don't talk, we sleep now. Its safe now, the world is over"
The only bad thing I can possibly say about The Body, The Blood, The Machine, is that it's too short, and that not every CD around is like to, because its so damn awesome and I want more.
I'm keeping my eye on Hutch, Kathy and new drummer Westin, and I'm excited to buy Now We Can See and whatever comes next or came before.
