The Thrills - Let's Bottle Bohemia

Genre pop Publisher Virgin Records External Links Official Site Virgin Records

In 2003, The Thrill's released their first album, So Much For The City and now a year later, they've released their second album, Let's Bottle Bohemia. For many bands, the second album can make or break their careers and unfortunately Let's Bottle Bohemia at best is mediocre pop and at worst redundant and overproduced, despite guests such as Beach Boy's collaborator Van Dyke Parks and R.E.M.'s Peter Buck.

The album opens with "Tell Me Something I Don't Know" where a distorted guitar line gets mixed with percussion and as the guitar subtlety changes to a clean, produced sound while a piano melody begins to swell and Conor Deasy's lyrics begin to capture control of the song. Deasy's vocals have definitely matured but fail to push the song from good to great. Most likely because most of the lyrics were written while they were on tour. "Whatever Happened to Corey Haim" is another mediocre track complete with string hooks, a sharp, distinct bass line, and swelling synthesizers. Between these two songs the entire album has been described, give or take a few cheesy, country/folk ballads.

Let's Bottle Bohemia lacks variety and surprise, two attributes necessary to ensure repeat listening. Musically, the listener always knows where these songs are heading and there's not a single point in where they could be deceived. Producer D Sardy failed to realize that it is okay to hurt the listener's ear once and a while, so long as you resolve the sound. Let's Bottle Bohemia is a good album considering it was written, recorded, and distributed in a year but an album shouldn't need special considerations. If it needs more time then it should be given it. You cannot just produce track after track and layer after layer of sound unless you're looking to put out a generic, fabricated pop; a description this would fall under if it weren't for Deasy's unique vocals.

No amount of production can turn a good album into a great album, but it can turn a great album into something even bigger. Now all The Thrill's need to do is write that great album since they've already got the Pro-Tools.