Thrice Band • Page 326

Now TWY need to play this live at one (1) show and make a shirt that says "I've seen The Wonder Years play Deadbolt 1 time"

 

That was fun. Its cool to see both fan bases discovering the other for the first time. I had completely blanked Wonder Years out of my head after seeing them open for Four Year Strong many moons ago. Going through their discography today has been super enjoyable.

 

Been on a massive Thrice kick as of late so I’m just going to share whatever current thoughts are in my mind before sharing a discography ranking and my current top 30 songs.

First Impressions and Identity Crisis are rough. It was my first ever listen to FI and my second to IC. I don’t have any desire to revisit anything from either outside of a discography listen.

I think The Illusion of Safety is pretty good. I’ve gone back and forth for years now thinking it’s either good or just alright, but I’ve settled on thinking it’s good right now. I feel like it’s one of the albums of theirs that I underestimate most. Even if it’s one of their weaker albums, there are still plenty of great moments and good songs on that album.

The Artist in the Ambulance is a stone cold classic. Arguably my favorite? I go back and forth between this one and two others for my favorite. For the most part, I think I prefer the re-recording over the original. This is an all-timer of an album for me though. Everything I like about TIOS is just amplified here tenfold.

Vheissu is another stone cold classic. This is the one that I always forget how much I like it until I’m actively listening to it. This is another one that competes for my favorite album from them, but is prooooobably my least favorite of the three? As strong as this album is, I feel like it takes a bit of time to really get going. I like Image of the Invisible and Between the End and Where We Lie, but The Earth Will Shake is the first song on here that I would say I love. I go back and forth on whether I like or love Atlantic and next thing I know I’m already halfway through the album. I think it largely hits from For Miles through Red Sky though. With all that said, I wish Flags of Dawn had made the album. Great album regardless though.

The Alchemy Index is an interesting one for me. I largely love the Fire and Water EPs and would absolutely love an album that blends those sounds together sometime, however unlikely that is to happen. The Air and Earth EPs are good, but I don’t tend to listen to them often, especially the Earth EP. The Earth EP is just not what I’m ever in the mood for when I want to listen to Thrice. The Air EP is split right down the middle between songs I love and songs I like and, as a result, I don’t listen to it often. I wish they recorded A Song for Milly Michaelson the way they play it live. I think I’d revisit the EP more had they done so. I’m probably underrating the Air EP though.

Beggars rules. I’d even go as far as to describe it as a stone cold classic. This is the last album that competes with TAITA and Vheissu for my favorite and this is the first album I actually ever listened to from the band (though TAITA was the first that sparked my love for them). I love the raw, live energy on this album. Reading the liner notes to it makes me appreciate the album even more. Absolutely fantastic album that has so many of their best songs. My only complaint is that I wish both Answered and Red Telephone had made the album. I think those two are better than a few of the songs that did make the album.

Major / Minor is very good. I used to like it a lot from 2011-2013 or so before I set it aside for a while, which caused me to underrate it quite a bit for several years, but I’d say the last five years have found me enjoying it more and more over time. As a drummer, I love what Riley brought to the table here (as well as on Beggars). I think this album is generally underrated by the fanbase and I’d like to see it get a little more love in the band’s setlists these days, though I doubt that will happen any time soon.

To Be Everywhere is To Be Nowhere is a great album, but perhaps the one that has fallen in my ranking most over time. Perhaps the excitement of having the band actively back in our lives is what propelled it up my ranking initially, but songs I used to love a ton and considered some of my absolute favorites from them have somewhat fallen out of favor over time. I still love them and this album, but perhaps that new shine wore off. Hell of a comeback album though.

Palms is a weird album. I’ve shared my thoughts on it recently and still feel similarly. I think it’s a good album, but just lacks that punch that most Thrice albums have. I know it’s more reserved, relative to their other releases, but so is Beggars and I think that album is very strong overall. I really think I would feel differently about this album if it had better production/mixing and if perhaps some songs from Deeper Wells made it on here in place of others. With that said, this is easily my least favorite album of theirs since Identity Crisis.

Horizons / East rules. I find this album so rich in terms of tones and energy. The grooves and feel through this album are so good. This is my favorite sonic direction of theirs since Beggrs and arguably my favorite sound of theirs in general. I hope they continue to go down this route. After nearly three years since its release (new album pls), I still find this album to be exciting and invigorating. Lotta great stuff on here. This album has only gotten better and better to me over time. I love it.

Beggars
The Artist in the Ambulance
Vheissu
The Alchemy Index
Horizon / East
To Be Everything is To Be Nowhere
Major / Minor
The Illusion of Safety
Palms
Identity Crisis

Top 30 Songs:
1. Circles
2. Daedalus
3. The Earth Will Shake
4. Silhouette
5. Firebreather
6. Of Dust and Nations
7. Paper Tigers
8. Scavengers
9. Hurricane
10. Beggars
11. Red Sky
12. In Exile
13. Digital Sea
14. The Long Defeat
15. Words in the Water
16. Cold Cash and Colder Hearts
17. Beyond the Pines
18. Northern Lights
19. The Arsonist
20. For Miles
21. Anthology
22. Lost Continent
23. Hoods on Peregrine
24. All the World is Mad
25. Stand and Feel Your Worth
26. Robot Soft Exorcism
27. Death from Above
28. Wood and Wire
29. Yellow Belly
30. At the Last

 

No joke, before I saw your post, I came in here to say: "Circles might be the best Thrice song."

 

It’s goated

 

love those rankings

 

Thank you, as you can probably imagine, they’ve already changed a bit, but the same songs remain

 

I'm not the first to say this, but I have a very hard time listening to M/m because it takes me back to a time where the band's future was in doubt. "But Dustin always said ..." — I know, but enough bands have failed to reunite after leaving the door open.

 

I can understand this, as the guys announced the impending hiatus within months after I started regularly listening to them. But with three albums of new material now released, surely this is moot.

 

Picking the 30 best thrice songs is hard, these are my top 35 songs, I left out a bunch of classics, in no particular order

Daedalus
The whaler
Circles
Beggars
Paper tigers (rerecorded)
The window
Long defeat
The artists in the ambulance
The melting point of wax
Blood clots and black holes
Kill me quickly
Betrayal is a symptom
Deadbolt (live)
Lost continent
Open water
The messenger
Words in the water
Anthology
A song for milly Michaelson (recorded and live reworked version )
Silver wings
Moving mountains
Between the end and where we lie
Atlantic
The earth will shake (live)
Of dust and nations
Red sky
Music box
For miles
Phoenix ignition
Ultra blue
T &c
Beyond the pines
Scavengers
Salt and shadow
Promises

I hope someday they play two different setlists back to back nights in the same city, they have such a amazing discography, a single 90 min setlist doesn't do it justice

 

You would think. It just takes me back to that time and place, even if I'm no longer worried about their future. It's the same thing when I overhear "Hey There Delilah." The worst job I ever had played that song on loop throughout the office building, and every time I've heard it in the 18 years since, I go right back to those miserable hallways that I haven't walked through since 2007.

 

Here is my half-hearted attempt at a top 20:

For Miles
Of Dust and Nations
Daedalus
Circles
Beyond the Pines
The Abolition of Man
Melting Point of Wax
Deadbolt
The Whaler
Firebreather
The Window
Black Honey
Music Box
Wood and Wire
At the Last
Red Telephone
The Arsonist
Dead Wake
Still Life
Beltsville

 

Circles
For Miles
Of Dust and Nations
The Arsonist
Firebreather
The Melting Point of Wax
Blinded
The Whaler
Black Honey
In Years to Come
Blood on Blood
Hurricane
Like Moths to Flame
The Weight
Summer Set Fire to the Rain
Wood and Wire
Red Sky
Death from Above
Just Breathe
Silhouette

 

Fine I’ll go (in no particular order):

beyond the pines
Cold cash and colder hearts
The earth will shake
Circles
Dandelion wine
the long defeat
Red sky
The whaler
Paper tigers
Words in the water
Still life
Beggars
Like moths to flame
Anthology
Kill me quickly
Hurricane
Daedalus
To awake and avenge the dead
For miles
Salt and shadow


This could very easily change any given day

 

I don't know what it is, but Beggers just never clicked for me. To Be Everything is To Be Nowhere has honestly stuck with me the most of any of their albums since Vheissu. But I need to go through discography again...

 

To Be Everywhere is such a strange album for me. exactly half of it is A+ banner Thrice cuts for me and the other half I'd be happy never hearing again. it almost alternates between the two song to song too which is even wilder lmao

 

Beggars is top tier. I always liked it, but it has worked its way to the top and solidified there. Just an incredibly strong tight album.

 

Beggars is far and away my favorite album from them. Vheissu is 2nd but the gap is so wide between 1 and 2.

 

I’m a weirdo Palms apologist, to me it feels like it vibes with the through line of Vhiessu and Alchemy into Beggars. Dustin’s deconstructionist themes resonated heavily with me. I was so glad they were back with To Be Everything and liked that album but Palms just hit me right and I knew they were Back with a capital B. It’s in my top half of their discography.

 

This is how I feel about Beggars - it clicked but not in the way other albums have. I was super into all their experimental stuff on the Alchemy EPs and when I heard that dirty raw one note bass intro to 'All The World Is Mad' I was supremely disappointed at the new direction lol.

It's since grown on me - In Exile, Wood & Wire, The Great Exchange are all some of my favorite Thrice songs. But it never blew me away on the first or any subsequent listens.

 

Sorry, but I just can't trust anyone who doesn't love that intro to "All the World Is Mad". I still get the same giddy feeling as the first time I heard it.

 

I obviously like it now but I didn't immediately love it. My whole mindset was "How could they go from the airy time signatures of Daedalus, the beautiful soundscapes of the Water EP, the aggression of the Fire songs to this single note?"

it was a bad take then because I wanted more experimental stuff like the Alchemy Index. But this band has never done the same album twice and they're better for it.

 

Who's looking back in the mirror?

 

And why are they closing their eyes?

 

A mini tour like this would be sick for Thrice
An eras kind of tour