Thursday Take Big Step Forward On New Album

06/01/06 6:00pm

by Shehzaad Jiwani (CHARTattack)

Thursday's new album, A City By The Light Divided, both proves that they're far ahead of their screamo imitators and hints that they'll be around a lot longer than their contemporaries.

"Without it being forced, the band needs to evolve, and I think that's what we did with A City By The Light Divided," says keyboardist Andrew Everding. "I think we've all had this record in mind for a long time.

"We've all been trying to get this out for a long time. It's very different from the previous records. It still sounds like Thursday, but we were able to sort of branch out and explore the different tangents that we were thinking of beforehand."

That need to evolve has kept Thursday leaps and bounds ahead of similar bands in their field. And though they might not sell as many records, it's cementing their place as a group that are in it for the long run.

"We're not selling like two million records, or a million records even, so compared to who's huge right now, we're not that big," Everding admits. "Bands that get really big at a certain time usually have a sound to their records that's really focused, it's like the same songs over and over.

"So when you're young and you get those records you love all of those songs. Bands that exist for a really long time, usually, their first record is completely different from their last record. We were trying to write a record that you listen to from front to back rather than listening to individual songs."

It's the kind of album you'd want to do that with, since every track is unique and equally engaging. Lead track "The Other Side Of The Crash" and single "Counting 5-4-3-2-1" are both trademark Thursday songs, brimming with urgency and intensity, with vocalist Geoff Rickly's oft-imitated warm croon sailing over brash guitars.

Conversely, "Telegraph Avenue Kiss" is a bouncy, Cure-like romp with xylophones and female vocals tucked into the background. It's that versatility that leads Thursday away from the pack, and they sound more confident with where they are now than ever before.

"I think, overall, the band was in a much more able place," Everding says. "We were going into the record with the expectation of a little bit of internal pressure on our part because this is the record we wanted to write in its entirety, make it completely ours.

"It's not a really slick, over-produced record. There's ties to Full Collapse — you're always gonna remember your roots and where you came from — but this was more of a record where we wanted it to sound like a band was playing in a room, and it sounds like that. You hear nuances and problems, and there's almost even mistakes on certain songs. The overall intention of it is very true."

Thursday will play the following Canadian dates as part of this summer's Warped Tour:

July 18 Vancouver, BC @ Thunderbird Stadium
July 20 Calgary, AB @ Race City Speedway
Aug. 12 Barrie, ON @ Park Place
Aug. 13 Montreal, QC @ Parc Jean Drapeau