Thrushes - Sun Come Undone

Sun Come Undone by Thrushes (myspace here). Last Summer it was (2007), I was sent this beautiful, harrowing, haunting record by the band, from Baltimore, Maryland. I've had it, and a laudatory review swirling around in the back of my brain since then and I actually thought I had written of it already, but apparently not.

Thruses mix Phil Spectre-ish pop sensibilities with ghostly guitar progressions and huge sounding drums, long quiet spaces, and splashing choruses that sound like you've just hit the water after jumping off a cliff.

The band has a very sophisticated way of building up a delicate tension like a crystal house and then bursting it to powder with explosive crescendos. Every time the record begins to seem a bit like territory already covered it seems to read my mind and change tack.

They self identify as shoegaze, which I suppose is appropriate. The label tends to suggest navel gazing music (of course it does) but I don't want you to walk away from this paragraph without being told that this is really a fun record to listen to. You'll find yourself chanting "Let's go out tonight!" along with the band on "Ghost Train" because you just won't be able to help yourself.

Sun Come Undone quite reminds of me of Sonic Youth but in their more tuneful moments (which is to say, in apposition to SY's more noisey/atonal moments). The only real criticism I have of it is that at times singer Anna Conner sounds like she was still finding her voice a bit, I'd reckon by now it must be something to behold, and throughout the record I think she more than makes up for it with well-chosen, short, sweet, lyrical hooks that seemed designed to make your heart sigh.

Do check them out, they have a couple of gigs coming up over the next two months, including an appearance at The Annex in New York City on April 12th. Find out more about their gigs and buy Sun Come Undone over on their Myspace page.