Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
When the battle cry is over, all that is left running and garnering admiring looks from the stunned but energised crowd who witness the spin of the wheels and the heat, the sheer plume of fire and smoke that comes out of the exhausts and causes the thin layer of reason between Earth and the sky to cloud over and mingle in the sound of an engine beating with excitement, when all is said and done, only the Thunderbird remains.
It is the presence of the iconic beast of the road that the music from the far side of Canada’s vast, open and corn driven fields, its scenic and often foreboding deep immeasurable forests and severe but deeply magical and incredible mountains, gets played and is inspired by the sound of classic Rock. It might be a sound more acquainted with the highways and interstate roads of its southern neighbour, but there is no denying this revving engine, full of life, pulsing with ferocity but keen enough on the ears to feel the sense of Progressive that lurks underneath its hood.
An album that is akin to the very name and moniker it holds, one of prestige, memory and power, of the very classic that many would associate with luxury, one not afraid to walk the line between the genesis of its structure and the possible conversion in its appearance, one designed to appeal to the ear, one that strikes home and has all eyes turn to face it as it glides with panache down the street.
In songs such as the fantastic Little Jenny, a mix in itself between the thought of the crushing devastation sought by fellow Canadian band Annihilator and that of the serene but observant lyrics employed by Richard Marx’s sensational hit Hazard, Rain, Painted Lady, Man of Clay, On The Brink, Vampire and King Rat, the band have seen the tyre treads of the past and decided to wipe the floor, to make new impressions, to seize the opportunity to take this classic number out for a quick spin that will last a thousand miles and with the radio on full blast.
We rarely see classics from the other side of the vast continent, our minds perhaps too consumed with the road that follows the routes to Nashville, Los Angeles and back to the mean street of Brooklyn, Harlem and the niceties of Manhattan; perhaps we should drop the hood down a little further, appreciate the classic wherever it may have originated from and for Thunderbird and their brand new self titled album, it is a classic worth driving.
Thunderbird is released on April 25th.
Ian D. Hall