The Thrills - Nothing Changes Around Here (Virgin)
UK release date: 16 July 2007
After spending their first two albums wishing they'd been born on the West Coast of the USA instead of the East Coast of Ireland, The Thrills first taste from upcoming album Teenager looks inwards for inspiration.
While previous Thrills tracks like Big Sur and Santa Cruz wore their sense of place quite openly, Nothing Changes Around Here could be sighed by teens from Marin to Mayo. It's a intelligent, muscular single that evokes memories of Don't Go Back To Rockville-era REM. Lead singer Conor Deasy has a cracked, emotive voice that bears up well to comparisons with Neil Young, and the rest of the band lays down a solid backing for him to softly croak over.
Ultimately, Nothing Changes Around Here is four minutes of teenage frustration: wanting to be anywhere else than 'here', wanting desperately to be accepted socially, but most of all worried that, whatever you do, wherever you go, there's ultimately no escaping from yourself. And for all the happy sounding 'la la la's in the chorus, there's no mistaking that, to The Thrills, growing up, like breaking up, is certainly hard to do.
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