![]() ![]() Taking obvious cues from worthwhile sources sets Thrice in good stead, yet for all the risks they take over what they play, even the most disarming of their innovations find themselves trapped within an increasingly stale songwriting matrix. Ultimately, the main issue here has very little to do with originality: diving into Buckley-esque vocal inflections ultimately coaxes out one of frontman Dustin Kensrue’s most compelling performances in years, and guitarist Teppei Teranishi’s makes good use of Jonny Greenwood’s finest arpeggios. This reflects the breadth of Thrice’s innovations as much as the ease a conscientious listener will have in pigeonholing them. ![]() These names have all been vaguely adjacent to their ballpark at various points, but they’ve never felt so comfortable within the same conversation. All fumbles aside, Palms was the most creative and diverse Thrice album since Beggars, and Horizons / East pushes the boat out further still, augmenting their post-hardcore/post-grunge fundamentals with nods to jazz, electronic, and alt rock, reminiscent of such artists as Radiohead (“Robot Soft Exorcism”), Jeff Buckley (“Dandelion Wine”) and Deftones (“Still Life”). Many have already proclaimed it an improvement on 2018’s Palms, testament to its comparative paucity of derivative corniness, but it’s also accurate to view it as a continuation of what that album was striving for. It plays out as one of their most inspired but least inspiring records to date, but can at least be viewed as a positive step forward in the short term. Thrice’s latest album Horizons / East reflects this in full ambivalence, dropping a range of surprise style changes and eye-catching performances while reinforcing almost all the shortfalls long since pinpointed by sceptics of the group’s post-hiatus output. It’s clichéd to imagine bands’ ideas are the main thing to dry up as they get older there’s all sorts of other ways age can make itself obvious, many of which are arguably more damning. ![]()
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