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"Let's Bottle Bohemia" by The Thrills (2004)

"Let's Bottle Bohemia" by The Thrills

Artist:

The Thrills

Album:

Let's Bottle Bohemia

Released In:

2004

Reviewed By:

Kyle England

Grade:

2.5

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It's only been a year since those young Irish lads, The Thrills, released their much-hyped debut album So Much For The City. A blend of Byrds country rock and Beach Boys harmonies, melded with Conor Deasy's vocal lilt similar to that of Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips. Let's Bottle Bohemia is a quick follow-up that was written out on the road in an obvious attempt to cash-in on the buzz of the first record, and without a doubt, it certainly does feel rushed. So much so that the attraction that grabbed listeners in the first place with their first album, will probably alienate and bore them to tears here. While Let's Bottle Bohemia is musically sound, it sounds entirely too much like its predacessor for its own good.

There is also another downside to Bohemia that is far worse than just similar sounding riffs. On So Much For The City, the most appealing aspect was listening to doe eyed foreigners moving to San Diego and writing songs about culture shock and life on the West Coast. On Let's Bottle Bohemia, the cuteness of naivete is gone, and in its place are lyrics that seem almost poseurish and lame. On the tediously titled What "Ever Happened To Corey Haim?," Deasy sings the awful line "I'm Paramount Pictures, I'm Andy Warhol without the peers. Hey, has-beens! I'm the American dream." It doesn't get any better from there either. "The Curse Of Comfort" has the pleasure of having ridiculous lines such as "The suburbs dream tonight of finding their muse, damn those rape victims and their five star reviews."

If, on future releases, The Thrills could at the very least tweak their sound just a little bit, I still think they have the musical talent that could take them to fame and fortune. But I think it's time for these boys to catch a flight back home, because with the songwriting well running dry, Let's Bottle Bohemia turns out to be anything but thrilling.

:: zBoneman.com Reader Comments ::

Dead Post

Dead Post

Hey not-so-boneyman, why do you kill certain posts? Are you afraid of where the debate will go? Getting a little sick of the negativity? If you consider redesigning your site then you could create forums that wouldn't need to be moderated on a I'm-a-little-too-drunk-to-make-the-call basis. There's nothing worse than almost-free speech.

Bone

Bone

I filter some of yours out because, rather than being comments that pertain to the subject of the review, it's just self-agrandizing prattle that's usually nothing more than personal attacks on my writers. Trust me, no one other than you is interested in reading the things you write.

Dead Post

Dead Post

I'm glad to see you borrowing my vocabulary. Welcome to back to the world where how much you know about the latest crap music doesn't really matter. I think this post will be my last for a while--good riddance, right? You've succeeded in compromising the free speechiness of your own site. It's a little ironic, don't you think? You create and or maintain a site where you want viewers to flock and respond...then you pick and choose how they respond. Another interesting concept: you and your reviewer (assuming it isn't also you) are the only souls interested in debating. Do you think it's that most of your viewers aren't up to it? Or do you think that you, me, and the lamp post are pretty much the only thing happening on boneman.com? It would have been fun to do some verbal sparring, but all any of you want is to talk football and piss in my direction. What happened to intellectual good faith? "Respond in kind" menas nothing here.

Sherry Lopes

Sherry Lopes

I think Kyle has always been way too hard on The Thrills, I saw them at SXSW and they were the best band there - hands down, So Much For The City was much better than 3.5

kyle

kyle

Sherry,

It's interesting you loved their live performance so much, because I've seen them twice (including an opening slot for the Pixies a few weeks ago) and they bored me to tears. I must say I'm curious, what did you think of their new album since you thought I was too tough on their first album?

xx.kitty

xx.kitty

I lub that cd. The lyrics aren't that bad, and the wonderful melodies make up for it. Although I have never herd any song from "what happened for the city", so for all I know they could be painfully simular. I did also notice that the melody from "found my rose bud" is repeated in another song. My favorite is ""not for all the love in the world". I like the first three songs a;so and number 9. But as for "saturady night" i'm not a fan. I give it a 3 out of 5

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