“Not really sure how to feel about it/ Something in the way you move/ Makes me feel like I can’t live without you/ It takes me all the way/ I want you to stay.”
Sentiments some, if only a select few, will doubtless harbour for swashbuckling Portland, Oregon punk-rockers The Thermals. Six albums in, the West Coast trio are as compelling a force as they’ve ever been, and still widespread adoration eludes them. It’s without question one of power-pop’s great mysteries, although for those who so steadfastly revel in their every work, the reward has recurrently proven abundant.
Their latest offering, a cover of Rihanna and Mikky Ekko’s Stay recorded live on KEXP during last month’s MusicFestNW nowhere other than Portland, may ditch the dulcet tones of what was once a maudlin duet, and doesn’t benefit from the bathtub nudity exploited by RiRi’s people in the filming of its gently contentious video. But nor is it without its glitz, Hutch Harris’ trademarkedly brittle power chords gazumping Ekko’s honky plodder with aplomb as Westin Glass smashes fifty shades of grey matter-splatting vigour into his scintillating cymbals. “It takes me right away”, representing as it does one of the more radical aural overhauls of recent weeks, months, and likely years.
The Thermals.
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