(100) Days of Soundtrack: #11 – Nothing But Thieves – Nothing But Thieves

“You know what album you should do,” my mother suggested in the car last week, having seen the blog was active again, “is that song I like, the tripswitch one.” I laughed a little to myself. That’s such a Sally way to approach a song, for one, but secondly, I had already thought to listen to give it a spin. She and I have discussed this already. Her intrigue with the band spawns from the chorus, and moments therein where the lead singer channels a slight tinge of Jeff Buckley. My mother has loved both Jeff and his late father Tim as long as each has been out, so it is no surprise she would want to remain loyal to Buckley’s ethereal voice. To be sure, there is something in the “down down down down down down” progression in that lead single which does just tickle my music bone… it holds promise. The song itself, though, feels dull, and while I know as well as anyone that a first single means nothing for the rest of the album, I was nevertheless apprehensive. The chorus could mean there’s great stuff hidden on the album proper, but the bulk of the song could mean this is little more than dullsville, population thieves. Thus biased, I set out to find the truth.

Immediately, Nothing But Thieves make a case for my mother’s side of the argument. “Excuse Me” begins with delicate vocals that definitely continue that Jeff Buckley flair, crescendoing into a warbling falsetto. The choruses throughout the album make good use of this falsetto, often soaring like on “Wake Up Call,” which feels like a deep breath of clean, cold air. The band is most successful when they go full-on dreamy, like on “If I Get High,” which has shades of classic Radiohead in it, or the sad, sweet-sounding “Lover, Please Stay,” which is about as obvious a nod to Buckley as one can give. These songs not only make the most of an unmistakably lovely voice, but they showcase a side of the band that most of the songs ignore. They feel honest and yearning, and let’s be real, we all know I’m into that.

Of course, “Excuse Me” also is a fairly boring song, despite being pleasant enough. It is the rare song which feels like it exists for any reason other than that this is a band and bands need to have songs. The average Nothing But Thieves track follows the “Trip Switch” pattern of a dull verse followed by a higher pitched chorus, where the most interesting musical bits will occur, but where the lyrics will be simplistic. Songs like “Drawing Pins” feel especially perfunctory, filler of the highest calibre. It’s when the band drops it’s “dark and moody” pretensions when they shine most, but this is a band that really wants to cling to their “dark and moody” pretensions. That’s a shame, because there’s some interesting moments, such as “Graveyard Whistling,” which feels like it could have had another life as an R&B jam… at least, I can hear it somewhere in there. For the most part these moments are isolated moments within songs, just as the “down down” line offered a glimmer bright enough to make me want to hear more. That’s enough to be interested in how the band grows, but it’s not really enough to build a fandom on, especially considering that, like so many albums before it, Nothing But Thieves has one of its most boring tracks for a lead single. That’s good news for people who love “Trip Switch,” but not positive for those on the fence to ever make the jump in… if you’re not already sold, there’s not a lot here that will really convince you to make the leap, but then, there’s also not a lot to make you walk away definitively. One could do worse.

Of note: I listened to the “deluxe” version of this album. It seems a bit cocky for such a new band to “deluxe” an album, but that’s the world we live in now. To be fair to Nothing But Thieves, I wasn’t quite tired of them by the time the extra tracks began, so a few extra songs can’t hurt. Unsurprisingly, however, bonus tracks are rarely true bonuses. Nothing here is bad, like the album itself, and indeed there are album tracks that could have been easily replaced by these tracks, but only “Neon Brother” made me feel that I would have missed out to have not at least heard it once.

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