The Thrills
Let's Bottle Bohemia

The second album by the Thrills, released worldwide just a week ago, presents the Irish band enamored with the "American Dream" aesthetic in a different guise from the one with which they became known last year, with the successful debut album "So Much For The City".
That was a record where the band's debt to their reference artists (obviously Beach Boys, but also Neil Young and Byrds) was sometimes too obvious, hiding under catchy sixties refrains and sometimes irresistible melodies a personality not yet "focused" and decidedly derivative.
In this challenging second effort, the band led by singer Conor Deasy (beautiful voice, sunny yet at the same time sexy, intense and "Young-like") seems determined to make the decisive leap in quality, freeing themselves from the all "California & Girls" image that could risk tiring the audience, neither too indie nor too mainstream, at whom they aim.
However, the result was not fully achieved, as despite a certainly notable compositional maturity, "Let's Bottle Bohemia" does not feature chart-busting singles like the previous work, although it is true that you can't have your cake and eat it too: the fact is, paradoxically, it's actually the more "complicated" tracks that convince, the ones where the interplay of vocal harmonies and sophisticated chords (always a bit in the Brian Wilson style) aim high enough to truly cause some chills.
This is the case with the opening track, "Tell Me Something I Don't Know", where there is a clear example of how the band has grown instrumentally and compositionally: full-blown piano, nostalgic vocals, a chorus backed by a bass line that would make Lenny Kravitz envious, and a break of intense emotion. A great piece.
Track no. 2, "Whatever Happened to Corey Haim", the album's leading single, reaffirms the idea of a band more confident in its potential (remember, the album was practically composed during the "So Much For The City" tour), and not at all afraid to rely on a deeply 1970s string arrangement, almost à la Love Unlimited Orchestra, which miraculously manages to avoid kitsch (in England it's said the track is copied from the "Mork & Mindy" TV show theme).
In "Faded Beauty Queens" appears none other than Peter Buck as a guest star, a known admirer of the Beach Boys (naturally...): a somewhat country and somewhat vaudeville style, complete with accompanying banjo, and with a charming and catchy chorus that could be a future single.
"Saturday Night", acoustic and somewhat "southern", lies halfway between early Springsteen and Bob Dylan, but Conor Deasy's voice still makes it seem like an outtake by Crosby, Nash, Stills, and Young.
It's always America as the main (only?) source of inspiration: proof is the blues ballad "Not For All Love In The World", which after a very Lennon-style intro turns into a delicate and touching intimate moment worthy of the best Billy Joel; "Our Wasted Lives" is faster and rock'n'roll, but doesn't seem particularly inspired, except for a few vocal interplays.
"You Can't Fool Old Friends..." is absolutely the most beautiful song on the album, a "reverse" love song with synth inserts (naturally with a very vintage flavor) reminiscent of the more naive Belle & Sebastian: the melancholy/nostalgia of this piece is nothing short of poignant, and as always it's Conor's interpretation that makes it so evocative.
"Found My Rosebud" is another gem, a song in which sudden changes of tempo, melody, and mood occur, and perhaps this is the piece where the band demonstrates the cohesion and freshness gained compared to their first album.
"The Curse Of Comfort" is instead dark and nocturnal; "The Irish Keep Gate-Crashing" is a lively yet melancholic pop rock enriched with a wild string section, with a bass line that curiously owes something to "Babies" by Pulp, and for the first time revives the band's Irish roots.
Ultimately, a record that does not require many listens to be "digested", but that is in any case less "easy" than the debut album: as already mentioned, on one hand, the band has grown and shown they can reach emotional heights previously unimaginable, but on the other hand they have lost (it's unclear if voluntarily) the immediacy that favored their success.
In doubt, I give it a 4, I hope I got it right.