Thunder Up

Thunder Up is the fifth and final studio album by British post-punk rock band The Sound. The album and its subsequent tour precipitated the band's collapse in the winter of 1987/88.

History

By 1987, The Sound were solid veterans to the music industry; they had, for instance, already passed through two record labels (Korova and Statik), released four studio albums (Jeopardy (1980), From The Lion's Mouth (1981), All Fall Down (1982) and Heads and Hearts (1985)) and one live album In The Hothouse (1986). These recordings chart the band's progressive shift from their raw punk origins to a more mature, idiosyncratic and brooding style characterised by Mike Dudley's motivated drumming, Graham Bailey's prominent bass hooks and Max Mayer's atmospheric synthesizer. However, it was more chiefly defined by frontman Adrian Borland's distinctive vocals, introspective lyrics and erratic guitar work.

Despite all this experience and with fresh new material emerging - by 1986 at least "Prove Me Wrong" had been written and recorded in its final form, appearing on In The Hothouse - there were enormous problems with the band. From 1985 onwards the severe symptoms of Borland's depression became more and more evident,^[1] and the financial effect of chronic poor albums sales were dire. Nonetheless, The Sound signed to Belgian label Play It Again Sam in order to release Thunder Up in 1987.

The Album

By drawing from all or most elements from previous albums, Thunder Up serves as a fitting conclusion to The Sound's discography; the more forceful tracks such as "Acceleration Group" and "Kinetic" owe homage to Jeopardy and From The Lion's Mouth, which have similarly confident, accessible tracks (for example, "Sense of Purpose" and "Skeletons"). Erratic tracks like "Shot Up and Shut Down" and "I Give You Pain" are highly reminiscent of the twisted solos on the experimental album All Fall Down (particularly "Party of The Mind") and softer tracks like "Hand of Love" similar to the polished Heads & Hearts (on such songs as "One Thousand Reasons" or "Love Is Not a Ghost"). Adrian Borland considered "I Give You Pain" to be a direct descendent of The Doors' "The End ^[2]"

The album can also be broadly considered conceptual; there is a clear split in tone between songs up to and including "Prove Me Wrong" and those after the next track "Shot Up And Shut Down"; the former are generally lighter and more confident, the latter more negative and insecure (mirroring the symptoms of bipolar disorder). There are also ironic touches - the first track appears to be overcut, revealing a moment of studio dialogue; Borland's vocals are deliberately flat on several occasions on "Kinetic" and toyingly follows the tune of the guitar solo; the synthesiser-piece from "Hand of Love" is interpreted on piano again just before the concluding track; et cetera.

Track listing

• You've Got a Way is sometimes separated into two pieces, part I and II, in order to distinguish the initial piano piece. This brings the total amount of tracks on some editions to 11.

Another track, "Through And Through" was recorded for the album, but never included.

The Songs

The lyrics are characteristically stark; Borland alludes to the deteriorating situation of the band in the album's opening lyric: 'The flames will flicker/And the wanting will waver/But there's something in this somewhere/That's going to go on forever', although the tone is usually flippant and confident as opposed to doubtful. The familiar topic of love is addressed hopefully in "Hand of Love". The lyrics match the militaristic drums in "Barria Alta" ('I won't drop/I won't stop until I'm up/In the high place'), before confidence reaches its zenith in "Kinetic" (You want to waste this moment, yeah?/You want to waste all our time?/You want to waste your life away?/Well you won't be wasting mine'); "Iron Years" is more earnest and tentative. "Prove Me Wrong" adopts a playful view of loneliness, juxtaposed sharply with the following track "Shot Up and Shut Down", seemingly the effects of a severe depressive episode. "Web of Wicked Ways" expresses regret at living in 'sad days' but is noticeably lighter. "I Give You Pain" acts as a relapse, a frantic piece about mutual destruction which culminates in a twisted guitar solo. The album ends on the sombre, reflective song "You've Got A Way" that displays Borland at his most candid and pained ('You've got a way/To shoot my night right through with the light of day').

Critical reception

The album was received well immediately on release by Big Takeover, who acknowledged it as a 'stunning, moving juggernaut' ^[4]. Critical appraisal of the work has largely been absent from the mainstream press, although it was at least championed by Melody Maker upon release:

"The Sound, by refining their despair simply amplify their magnificence and magnify the intensity of expression." ^[5]

Allmusic.com list the album with 3 stars, but offer no further explanation.^[6]

Thunder Up is also a band favourite. Said Borland in 1998:

"Ultimately I find " Thunder Up " the very best album, because it sounds like the band "live" in the studio and in a way it actually was."^[7]

Drummer Mike Dudley also named it as one of his favourite Sound albums, along with Propaganda, in a 2004 interview:

"Maybe there was that [the idea of this album being the band's "last stand"] behind it. The energy of desperation if you like. “Something’s got to happen,

so we have got to do our best to make it so.” Adrian’s melancholia ... came out on like songs like ‘You’ve Got a Way’ and ‘Barria Alta’ , but they are not particularly miserable songs in themselves. They are quite uplifting pieces despite the depressing subject matter. My favourite song, apart from ‘Barria Alta’, is “Kinetic’ which from a drummer’s point of view gave me the opportunity to bang away for four minutes. A lot of that album is quite up and it moves very well. The only thing wrong with the album is the production. Unfortunately Nick Robbins, who produced it had, got hold of an early digital recording box. For some bizarre reason he thought that it would be a good idea to transfer all the tape master down onto digital and that was what it was mastered from. The quality of the reproduction is horrible as a result, but from a musical viewpoint I think that some of our best stuff is on it. I am really

pleased with it."^[8]

References