It wasn’t long ago The Thermals were raising their fists and beckoning to the masses
to pray for a new state, or claiming they won’t flinch, they don’t give a shit, and
they weren’t listening. They titled one of their albums, Fuckin’ A, for god’s sake and
verbally petitioned for the assassination of political leaders. On paper these guys are
a gang of heavy rebels with a concentration in anarchy, when in reality they’re a band
fronted by a skinny white guy who make songs that sound like they should have been
on the Clueless soundtrack. Mix that all together and you’re left with a giant bowl of
awesome that’s been big enough to serve a descent fan base for the past eight years.

That’s why it feels so awkward to have to describe their latest release, and second off
of Kill Rock Stars, Personal Life, as lacking. Much like a VHS recording of a television
movie, it lacks quality. It’s still very watchable. The story still gets across the same way,
but it’s just not quite blu-ray is it?

After a close to flawless track record The Thermals somehow ended up sounding like
a carbon copy of, well, The Thermals, and the culprit of this travesty is love. Personal
Life is an entire album about being in love, and much like a relationship it has its
hit and misses. With every good track, its Bizarro World counterpoint can be found
somewhere else in the album. The opener, “I’m Gonna Change Your Life,” is a crunchy
little sing along, while the closer, “You Changed My Life,” is a riff-laden ode, that just
sounds softer than wet bread. “Your Love is So Strong” is a distorted track sounding
like vintage Thermals complete with the “Oooeyyooo” chant. On the other side we
have “A Reflection” which never really gets off the ground. And if you’re going to
sing about the girl that sets your heart aflutter a good way to do it is through the slow
tempo melodic “Alone, a Fool,” while a poor way to do it is the repetitive throwaway
track “Only For You.”

I suppose with the Bush administration out of office The Thermals are lacking
passionately driven inspiration, but last year’s Now We Can See was still very well put
together. Love can be a troubling and difficult topic, and The Thermals dedicated ten
tracks to it, and a relationship built upon it. And everyone knows that relationships are
built on compromises, and we’ve had to compromise the things we loved about this band
so Hutch Harris could sing about a girl.