I’m quite the Thursday fan-boy, so new material from the New Jersey crew is always exciting. Described by frontman Geoff Rickley as more ‘graceful and sweeping’ than previous releases, new single ‘Magnets Caught In a Metal Heart’ sees Thursday trading in their post-hardcore fire for rich, synth-driven atmospheres. And it’s fantastic!
The track pulses with a sense of earnest yearning, and sounds like a mature and confident culmination of Thursday’s forays into softer territory on past albums, while remaining new and fresh. There are shades of ‘War All the Time’ and ‘Standing on the Edge of Summer’ in Tucker Rule’s commanding but restrained drumming, whilst the lush synth textures (especially in the swelling bridge) bring to mind cuts like ‘Circuits of Fever’ and ‘Love Will Lead Us Astray’ from 2009’s Common Existence. The plaintive chords and rumbling low-end provide a great back-drop for Rickley’s haunting ruminations on love and distance. The almost choral repetition of ‘love’ in the chorus forms the heart of the song, a hook both grand and imbued with beautiful longing.
No Devoluciones shows Thursday, according to Geoff Rickley, aspiring to create something ‘really beautiful and powerful… (beyond) being heavy’. If ‘Magnets Caught In a Metal Heart’ is anything to go by, they’re definitely on the right path. And I for one am couldn’t be more stoked!
Click the link to listen to the tune, and read more of what Geoff Rickley had to say to SPIN about Thursday’s new record, No Devolucions (out April 12 via Epitaph)
