Thrice – Beggars

“True progress means matching the world to the vision in our heads, we always change the vision instead.”

You could be forgiven for thinking your eyes are decieving you when you are about to read a review of Orange County favourites Thrice’s latest album a full 3 months before it’s official release. Unfortunately for the band and record label, Vagrant Records, their follow up to the ambitious Alchemy Index leaked onto the internet mixed and mastered and ready for consumption albeit with a message that ‘you are listening to a Vagrant Records advanced promotional stream’ over the top of each song. Whilst this is unexpected it is no longer surprising as labels continue to struggle keeping albums under wraps until their release date. The leak has led to an early digital release of Beggars on August 11th with the physical release coming a month later in addition to last week’s Myspace stream of the album in its entirety. The one positive? We get the album early rather than having to wait another 3 months even though it would definitely have been worth the wait.

Suffice to say Beggars doesn’t disappoint and further cements Thrice’s position as the master of all trades. After the hugely eclectic offering that was The Alchemy Index I was unsure what to expect from the next full length. A return to the heavier past? A bigger step in the electronic and atomospheric direction? Maybe even more acoustic based efforts? In truth Beggars has most in common with the stylings of both their Air and Water discs, it is by no means a heavy album but it doesn’t lack in energy. That energy is present right from the word go with the lead single ‘All the World is Mad’, a song featured on the latest Guitar Hero as a taster for the Thrice faithful. Like a lot of tracks on the album it carried by an energetic groove provided by the rythem section siblings Riley and Ed Breckenridge before bursting into a typically rousing Thrice chorus. Next up is ‘The Weight’, a song about commitment and the fickleness of love that works in much the same way as the previous song with them both being just about as heavy as the album gets other than ‘Talking Through Glass’ towards to the end of the disc. From here on in the mood is more sombre starting with stand out track ‘Circles’. Sounding not unlike a mix between Radiohead and themselves on ‘Atlantic’ from their 2005 effort Vheissu the song is beautifully mellow with Dustin Kensrue’s vocals sounding as impressive as ever further showcasing his extraordinary ability to capture the mood of any song be it aggressive or mellow. After this comes ‘Doublespeak’, again carried by the Breckenridge brothers in addition to some neat piano work by the multitalented guitarist Teppei Teranishi (who also produced the album) before building into a heavier jerky chorus.

The middle of the album sees a slight return to the raw  and edgier styling of the opening tracks as ‘In Exile’, a Pedro the Lion-esque track that marchs its way through before bursting into a energetic and epic conclusion, and ‘At The Last’ provide brief moments of raucousness. True to form the guys don’t let the album stumble to a conclusion. Whilst the latter half of the album is mostly downbeat it provides more of its highlights with ‘Wood and Wire’ rivaling ‘Circles’ for beauty and atomosphere topped of by more light keyboard work by Teranishi and layered vocals from frontman Kensrue. Beggars ends with its title track, a song that while slow features some of the more aggressive and pained vocals with Kensrue’s voice being at it’s rawest as the album nears its conclusion with a song that would bring anyone with overly apparent ideas of self importance right back down to earth.

It isn’t hard to imagine that this album is set to polarise opinions of the band amongst fans of their previous work because of its mellower direction and lack of heavier riffs that Thrice were once famed for but this should not put anyone off trying it out. It gets better with each listen and hits home with just how well they manage to pull off whichever musical styling they fancy trying. Let the excitement commence for they’re about to head next…

8/10

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