Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Thunder
Label: Ear Music Records
Release: 2015
Duration: 55:23
Rating: 4.5/5
Thunder, the long-lived British hard rock veterans who dropped their studio debut back in 1990, after renaming themselves from Terraplane to Thunder in 1989, are back with their 10th studio album overall. The band’s career has been marked by two retirements and two comebacks. The second retirement came after the release of the album »Bang« (2008), at the start of 2009, but the band decided to return to the scene and in 2013 and 2014 played a run of shows, mostly around the United Kingdom, that turned out to be hugely successful. Clearly the longer creative break did them a world of good, and the band recharged its batteries.
The band went back into the studio with a bundle of great ideas, full of creative freshness and drive. These veterans are seriously experienced: drummer Gary »Harry« James (also in Magnum), singer Danny Bowes and guitarist Luke Morley have been playing together since 1975, so there are no secrets between them, and the musical focus Thunder strive for in their creative work has long been clearly and firmly staked out. Over the years the band developed under a strong influence of the blues, which the British white blues invasion of the late sixties certainly reinforced. The blues element has always been an important building block of the group’s musical record. Right from the debut.
The magic stays intact on »Wonder Days« too. It’s all here. Everything exactly where it should be. In the right place. Devilishly sharp guitar riffs, richly seasoned with the goodies of blues music, and the same goes for the sophisticated way decorative ornaments are laid into the passages between sections. Luke Morley, backed by Ben Matthews, remains an outstanding songwriter. The solid rhythmic backbone of James and Childs sounds chunky and punchy, and the crew floors you with an exceptional organic feel that keeps the album’s production attractively dynamic and glossy. Vocalist Danny Bowes remains a fascinating central figure with his deeply felt delivery of the verses, weaving cunningly between sophistication and an adrenaline rush. His voice stays eternally explosive at the points where the fast, fired-up songs call for it, like The Thing I Want, a stubbornly penetrating »rock’n’roller« that will get you going in an instant, while sounding wonderfully velvety and sensual in the album’s quieter moments (The Rain, Broken). Thunder can get seriously melancholic if they want to (the chorus of When the Music Played). If we were looking for some kind of equivalent on the other side of the Atlantic, it would be good old Great White (the version with Russell on vocals), though that’s hardly worth stressing in this review.
On the new record the band perhaps even more than ever casts a nostalgic eye back at the musical roots it comes from. So the opening track Wonder Days, and later Chasing Shadows too, give a gentle wink to Led Zeppelin, in the racing rock bouncer The Thing I Want you can catch a pinch of AC/DC, and in the melancholy, wistful ballad The Rain an opening mix of blues and Celtic folk sentiment. The Prophet could stir the emotions of fans of heavy rockers UFO, as well as those eternal Scottish grumblers Nazareth. The guitar phrases certainly carry some associations. In The Prophet the band even worked a theremin into the mid eight passage. The middle-eight sections are sophisticated and filigree-fine in design. It’s in The Prophet especially that the »wailing« of the guitars is a treat, through harmonized solos in thirds played with a slide. A seasoning that only the greatest masters get into your head. The Prophet is an exceptionally dark track and definitely one of the album’s highlights. Broken can pull the work of Uriah Heep from the second half of the seventies into its mid eight passage; that feeling is conjured up by the moaning, melancholy solo played with a slide. The song When the Music Played sounds especially nostalgic. The chorus is distinctly melancholic, and Bowes is downright moving in his vocal approach. Serpentine flirts with a country Southern feel at the start, then morphs into a moment of blues-boogie rock, full of cheeky adrenaline, driven by punchy riffs and Bowes on vocals! The album closes with a rock’n’roll »stinker« called I Love the Weekend, which dots the »i« on the feeling of nostalgia the album carries. In all these songs Thunder time and again cash in on their recognizable high melodic polish, which gives them the much-needed stamp of uniqueness in their songwriting stance and an incredible listenability!
»Wonder Days« strikes an outstanding balance between fast, trivially simple »rock pulsers«, more complex atmospheric moments, and calm, blues-seduced passages. It’s all here. We could say in the best possible manner for the state of the band in 2014 and 2015. Perhaps the recent, happily won battle with guitarist Ben Matthews’ insidious cancer also contributed to the team’s even tighter bond.
Blues hard rock in a highly fascinating manner, which the imperishable Thunder have always sensationally guaranteed. This album won’t bring them any more hits, as was the case with the first four albums in the nineties, but it’s essential for all lovers of primordially honest attitude in classic hard rock, loaded with an erotogenic dose of blues, while all the true-believer Thunder fans surely have it at home already. Thunder have perhaps never sounded as nostalgic as they do on the album »Wonder Days«. As if the circle of their career had closed and they’d taken one more look back at where their mission began. Even though the band is seriously mature, which the outstanding »Wonder Days« more than welcomely announces, let’s hope they don’t retire on us again, and that they’d rather make another album or two in the spirit in which »Wonder Days« was made. »Wonder Days« is a product you have nothing to add to and nothing to take away from. Brilliant work, guys!
Lineup
Danny Bowes – vocals
Luke Morley – guitar, backing vocals
Ben Matthews – guitar, keyboards
Chris Childs – bass guitar
Harry James – drums, percussion
Production
Luke Morley
Track list
01. Wonder Days
02. The Thing I Want
03. The Rain
04. Black Water
05. The Prophet
06. Resurrection Day
07. Chasing Shadows
08. Broken
09. When The Music Played
10. Serpentine
11. I Love The Weekend
12. Black Water (Acoustic)
13. Broken (Acoustic)
