Album review: Thrice: 'Beggars'

THRICE: 'Beggars' (Vagrant)

Thrice are certainly a difficult bunch. In 2005, they bamboozled fans and critics alike with the hugely experimental 'Vheissu', and then followed it up with the colossally diverse 'The Alchemy Index', a concept record in four parts that made for far from easy listening. Now, the band seem to want to distance themselves from both, describing them as a 'giant headgame', and lambasting their 'sleepy feeling.' With 'Beggars', their sixth effort, Thrice want to deliver a record that is 'a little more upbeat and energetic'; only problem is, they’re just too damn accomplished to do so.

While 'Beggars' certainly doesn’t demand as much patience as their previous three records, it is far from an immediate experience. The album oscillates between aggression and resolution, counterpointing the heavy and sinister ('Talking Through Glass', 'The Weight') with the lilting and delicate ('Wood and Wire', 'The Great Exchange'), but every moment is struck through with a world-weary melancholy that betrays the band's defeatism. Dustin's vocals are solemn and refined, even in his more visceral moments, and the lyrics themselves are no different; superlative opening track ‘All the World is Mad' works around the repeated refrain 'something's gone terribly wrong with everyone', and goes on to feature such delightful lines as 'darkness brings terrible things' and 'the blind lead the blind into bottomless pits/Still we smile and deny that we're cursed.' If this is Thrice's idea of 'uplifting', then heaven help us all.

Of course, we really wouldn't want it any other way. The band are all the better for their flirtations with the oblique and while 'Beggars' may take a little work, it ultimately pays dividends. Multiple listens reveal a wonderfully rich record, loaded with passion and bursting with ideas. ‘Doublespeak' is a delectable cacophony of weirdness, marrying pant-wetting piano stabs with intense bursts of guitar; 'Circles' moves with the grace and charm of a lullaby; and the title track is fantastically evocative, with a ninety second guitar cascade that sends shivers down the spine.

'Beggars'' only major flaw is the somewhat dreary nature of its mid-section, which at times is a little slow, but thankfully, the impact is minimal. On the whole, this is a highly engaging and inventive record that grabs you by the scruff of the neck and simply refuses to let go... just like 'The Alchemy Index' and 'Vheissu' before it. Thrice may want to break free of the 'shackles' of their previous records, but on the evidence of this, let's hope they never do. (8/10)