The Thermals - 'More Parts Per Million' (Sub Pop)
3/5
By: Toby L
It's a disparaging proposition this far down the line of the scruffy-jacket, greasy rocker emporium that The Thermals have arrived on a scene that's seemingly already been mastered.
But, if there's a buzz surrounding Sub Pop's latest brigade of four guitar-brandishing simpletons, then it's because their debut-LP 'More Parts Per Million' is the most immediate, zesty, altogether self-confessed 'no-fi' garage-rock record of the year.
It's wholly derivative. Barely lasts twenty-five minutes (in spite of carrying thirteen songs). And is as spicily noisy as rock 'n' roll ever ventures to be. Plus, what with headache vocals from the blaring Hutch Harris, it's the most demonically fronted alt-act of recent memory.
The tunes, then - hmm, thought something was missing thus far. Although The Thermals 'do' songs, they're not as you know 'em, all grunge-cum-indie offshoots that are as indicative of a classic early-90s Seattle band (hence that record-label tie-in...) as they are of a brawling Strokes and Libertines (ahem - just indulge within 'Overgrown, Overblown' or 'A Passing Feeling').
You'd therefore struggle to defy enjoyment; from the Beck-y chord-changes of a raspy 'It's Trivia', or Pistols/Buzzcocks sensibility of 'Time To Lose'... It's a history lesson, delivered with the (lack of) etiquette and urgency that can only constitute for a set of disaffected 21st Century dwellers.
The Thermals: true to their name, they'll make you sweat.
Artists in this article: The Thermals
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