Thursday declares War All the Time

Todd Gerch, WG'04

Issue date: 10/6/03 Section: Insider
Are you tired of the same old poppunk songs playing on the radio day after day? Have you been wondering what happened to rock bands that possess even a shred of originality? And let's not even mention the intolerable saturation of teenybopper tunes and repetitive hip-hop beats on the airwaves. Fortunately, a band hailing from New Jersey has come to save the day (and, no, I'm not talking about Saves the Day, a once- great band whose newest album is a complete abomination and a topic for another day).

Instead, I am talking about Thursday, an odd name for a band to be sure, but one whose newest album, War All the Time, has moved them to the forefront of the burgeoning emocore genre. After Thursday announced their appearance on the emocore scene with their promising 2001 album, Full Collapse, the band was heavily recruited by numerous major labels. War All the Time shows the band has deftly made the move from the independent Victory Records label to the recording industry giant Island without sacrificing the hardcore sound that differentiated them from other bands in the crowded emo field.

With the marketing power of Island behind them, Thursday has enjoyed solid success on modern rock radio over the past couple of months with "Signals Over the Air," a brooding, atmospheric track that is indicative of the influence The Cure has on the band's sound. But while most bands in the emo genre focus lyrically on the heartbreak of relationships with a stunning lack of, ironcally, emotional authenticity, Thursday differentiates itself both musically and lyrically. Singer Geoff Rickly's voice has a frantic, razor-sharp edge to it that lends itself to the minor-chord choruses and crushing guitars that characterize most of the tracks.

Throughout the album, the lyrical imagery is relentless and perfectly accompanies the breakneck pace of the music. Thursday is a band whose combination of violence and grace is evidenced by seamlessly melding crunching guitars, pulse-pounding drums and frenetic vocalizations while also being capable of the occasional stripped-down song that perfectly balances out their hardcore tendencies. Essentially, War All the Time is a picture painted with perfect contrasts. In an interview with Spin magazine, Rickly explained the theme for War All the Time: "I really wanted to hide from singing about love and the easiest way to do that was to sing about war. It's not really about war, but a record that uses war for love - hiding behind love with the idea of war. It's just always been something I've been so scared to talk about."
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