Send "The Thrills " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Sputnikmusic |
 I’m treating this review as the eulogy The Thrills never got, and I’m also using it to lament the opportunity 2002-2007 misses to try for some remembrance. The fourteen songs here heartily celebrate The Thrills, but the problem is that being the band’s ringleader has made Conor Deasy a fatalist. Here’s their compilation, as overlooked as the albums it lifts from, collecting their singles- as if this band, more American than Irish when they had a single to sell, ever pretended to be more than a singles band- and just look at its name. 2002-2007. Named with such a resigned shrug that it’s a wonder they released it. You’d believe it was a cynical move for Euros or whatever if it wasn’t for that fucking title, a paradox if there ever was one, because it’s such a dispassionate move and yet if Deasy was trying to squeeze money out of the Thrills franchise, where’s his hype? This compilation was released five months ago and no one even knows it exists. Its Wikipedia references link to articles on the two years that open and bookend it. How stupid, and how telling: a barely compiled best of and a drummer’s solo album. The Thrills are dead and no one bothered to give them a bloody eulogy.You’d think this says something of how these singles are now. But it’s not so: The Thrills were born dated. The way “Big Sur” went down in 2003 was flashy; it presented a band that sounded so much like a newly produced version of the Munkees that they said, well yeah, and wrote them a love letter. “Big Sur” was so much sunshine in one single, and I guess it’s an easy song to make when you’re the new thing. The music video, all beachside lounging, evoked pretty much the same thoughts Deasy had for eternal bliss. Four years later, the band was ever so casually dropped from EMI, and who even remembers “Big Sur” now? If anything, it’s a curse, the song that got them remembered as “that Munkees band.” And yet it’s still “Big Sur” of 2003 out of its meta context, and it still sounds unforgettable. It’s a burst of sunshine every time you hear it, certified to be the piece of ‘60s revival it was supposedly aiming to be. Me, I think it was just meant to make everyone smile. Of course 2002-2007 was never going to capture anyone’s imagination, and “Big Sur,” with its electric guitar vs. banjo surf-off, was a UK #17 hit that did everything to be sixteen places higher. The Thrills tried and tried, and I guess they don’t feel they need to at this point. This speaks optimistically of 2002-2007, which represents The Thrills at their best on each of their records. On So Much For The City, Deasy is naively influenced and nothing more, the slow-jam of “Hollywood Kids” sweetly talking about places he probably never went. On Let’s Bottle Bohemia he’s tricked himself into thinking this sound was his all along, and so if he’s naively influenced, he’s only naively influenced by himself. “Whatever Happened to Corey Haim?” is “Big Sur” with synthesizers, but the disguise is stubborn. 2002-2007 is the example by which all best-ofs should be made, or rather it says that such compilations are for certain bands. Yes, it’s a routine to make a singles album, but only for The Thrills, a band who cherished specific songs, does it work so well. And maybe, in a weird way, the reason these guys faded away so fast was because they were modelling their career on that big, insanely memorable burst in “Big Sur.” In “Whatever Happened to Corey Haim,” The Thrills write themselves another little eulogy, referencing yet another big name tumbling by the waste-side. As long as The Thrills clung onto their favourite pop stars and their tragic icons, they were destined to be remembered for those names and not their own....full text |
| Recordcollectormag |
| The Thrills’ career sums up the fortunes of any number of young guitar-based bands to whom the world was promised around a decade ago: an initial surge of hype and then a best-selling debut album; a second record that underwhelmed; a third effort that barely registered. That first flowering, So Much For The City, accounts for the majority of tracks here. On their best-known work, the Motown-flavoured One Horse Town, Santa Cruz (You’re Not That Far) and Big Sur’s unashamed bash at Lovin’ Spoonful/ Monkees West Coast pop, they still sound thoroughly likeable. The lyrical content seems to mainly consist of singer Conor Deasy yelping a string of American place names and references to “the kids” and the like, which generally adds to the sense of derivative, harmless fun. Second album Let’s Bottle Bohemia saw the band working with Van Dyke Parks and Peter Buck, and the material here shows a progression, particularly on The Irish Keep Gatecrashing. By the time of Teenager, however, the band appeared, commercially, to be a spent force. It’s a shame because on The Midnight Choir and Not For All For The Love In The World they tap into a more muscular kind of pop and improved songcraft which, while hardly spectacular, boded well for their future. Alas, the way these things work out, it wasn’t to be....full text |
| Stuff |
| I'm not sure if this compilation exists as an epitaph or to honour a record contract (or both) - either way it's an exercise in pointlessness. Five years, three albums, and you get a 'best of'? Come on. Irish bands are supposed to sing about rain clouds and shithouse pubs, but The Thrills managed to get nominated for a Mercury Prize and become chummy with Morrissey and REM on the back of their 2003 sun-obsessed So Much For the City - the lyrics and melodies heavily influenced by the Beach Boys, Monkees, or any 1960s act with sand between their toes. It may not be authentic, but damn that record has more hooks than a fleet of fishing boats. Despite the name-dropping single Whatever Happened to Corey Haim? receiving heavy airplay in the UK, 2004's Let's Bottle Bohemia and 2007's Teenager largely sunk like stones, and now it looks like there'll be no more. Though dominated by So Much For the City (six of the 14 tracks), 2002-2007 still manages to miss out a couple of that's album's best songs - which begs the question, why not just buy that album? While it's nice to have some of the stronger stuff from Bohemia and Teenager (though I still hate the Corey Haim song), I can't help but feel So Much For the City is all The Thrills anyone needs....full text |
The Thrills lyrics
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