Classic Rock Bottom

Thunder
Rip It Up
earMUSIC - 2017
http://www.thunderonline.com

Given that Thunder's previous album, Wonder Days, was my favorite album of 2015 you can probably imagine how much I was looking forward to their follow up. The problem with having heightened expectations is that you are sometimes let down.

The first time I listened to the album I thought that the band just seemed to be rocking out a lot less. Of course, once I really started listening to the album's 11 tracks a bit more, I realized that I was mistaken. They rock out quite nicely overall.


While I missed out on the band until just a couple of years ago, I've really become enamored with their sound and keep looking to add their back catalog to my music collection. The band's creative force remains guitarist Luke Morley. He wrote all the songs and produced the album as well as his guitar and keyboard playing.


The British hard rockers implore you to "turn the volume up" on the album's title track, and you definitely want to accomodate them. On the opening song, "No One Gets Out Alive", there's a bit of repetitious riff that kind of takes a bit of getting used to, but singer Daniel Bowes has great phrasing in his vocal delivery on the song and the song settles into a slick groove after a bit.


When I first saw the song title "She Likes The Cocaine" I was not looking forward to the song but I should've known it wouldn't be glorifying anything. Instead, the lyrical story serves more as a cautionary tale of life lived in the fast lane of celebrity and fame. The guest vocal from Lynne Jackaman is an interesting addition and blends well with the lead vocal from Bowes.


For me, the band fell short on a trio of tracks where they slowed things down considerably. The ballad "Right From The Start" has a nice guitar solo but I was otherwise unmoved by whatever emotional response was being looked for by the track. There's another great solo on the closing number "There's Always A Loser", but I couldn't find my way to enjoying the lyrics which played out as a kind of "it takes a village" mentality indictment against "the beautiful people". It isn't anything you haven't heard a million times before and therefore it felt a little run of the mill to me, and I'm definitely not one of those beautiful people. Meanwhile, the track "In Another Life" was painfully drawn out. I thought the delivery was sleep inducing and just entirely too sedate for my personal taste (or lack thereof, for those who end up disagreeing with me).


I'm sure that Morley did not intend to provide some unintentional humor with any of his lyrics, but the second line in the song "The Chosen One" is "like an eel riding Vaseline" and I just found it a hilarious line. But the rocking track was otherwise pretty darn good.


When the Thunder unleashes a straight ahead rocker like "Shakedown" or "Tumbling Down" you can see yourself fist pumping along with the rhythmic delivery of each song.


The two best songs on Rip It Up for me were the songs that not only rocked out but had a slightly harder edged sound than the other faster paced songs. "Heartbreak Hurricane" has an edgy guitar riff to the song and the band as a whole just kills it in the execution. But the real gem of the album is "The Enemy Inside". Singer Daniel Bowes embodies the song title and turns in a fantastic performance to the lyrical storyline that is both playful and taunting in its delivery. I thought this was also the song where the band came at it from the heaviest part of their sound. In a way, the lyrics reminded me of the Warren Zevon song "Mr. Bad Example".


When I reviewed Wonder Days I called that album one of the singularly best releases of 2015. I may be slightly less enamored of Rip It Up due to my criticisms of those three songs above but despite that, I still found this to be an overall satisfying listening experience. My thirst for more Thunder music remains unchanged and Rip It Up will likely make fans out of anyone else who listens who wants some quality hard rock.


Rating 4.2 out of 5.0

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I liked the previous offering too.  However, I'd have to rate this one closer to 3 or so.  I really couldn't get into it on the whole.

Interesting that you have it rated so much lower. 

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