Popular Music - June 2015

Tori Amos - To Venus and Back (Venus Orbiting disc)
Tori Amos - The Beekeeper
Gomez - How We Operate
Jars of Clay - Who We Are Instead
Talk Talk - The Colour of Spring
Thrice

• The Alchemy Index
• Beggars
• Major/Minor

It looks like it might be time to talk about Thrice again...I purchased Beggars several months ago, but for some odd reason I didn't manage to get through the whole album in one sitting (my basic criterion for an entry in this blog/my spreadsheet) until June.

Chronologically, the album belongs in between the other two Thrice albums that I bought earlier. In some ways it also fits between them stylistically, with less variety than the deliberate split personality of The Alchemy Index (which I know I still haven't discussed properly) but slightly more variety than what I've previously described as the "straightforward rock" of Major/Minor. The main characteristic of Beggars, though, is that it usually has a rawer, less polished sound. It's also a bleaker album, particularly the title track which appears at the end. (Well, come to think of it much of the The Alchemy Index is quite bleak...)

I'm making it sound like Thrice are a bit miserable, which is exactly the wrong impression. They are often in fact quite inspiring and uplifting, a reaction inspired partly by the Christian ethos behind many lyrics. It's just that on Beggars the emphasis tends to be on the broken nature of people, and on our need for redemption and rescue. There's a sense of catharsis, of giving expression to some of life's difficulties to help make them more bearable.

At this stage, I find it more difficult to select particular highlights from Beggars than from the other two albums. But I think that's a good thing; it's an album that is a satisfying experience as a whole. Still, in an effort to encourage any readers to sample what's on offer... let's go with "Doublespeak".