Dark Thoughts: Highway to the End 12″

Description

My favorite thing about Dark Thoughts is that they’re 3 of my favorite people on Earth. My second favorite thing about Dark Thoughts is that every album they make is exactly what I want to hear. I’ll be totally honest, I don’t like it when bands i like change. I don’t really have any interest in it. If you make a record I like, I would prefer the next one to sound similar, and so on, etc. Dark Thoughts have mastered this formula while keeping each one as exciting as the previous. Every record is short, fast, catchy, angry, but has tender moments too. Highway To The End is no different. It might be the shortest one, could be the fastest one too. If you like any of their records you like them all and that’s not an easy task for a band to pull off.

Our take: Finally, five whole years after their 3rd album, Must Be Nice, comes the long-awaited new Dark Thoughts album, Highway to the End. On the surface, not much has changed. The cover art is another nod to their heroes the Ramones, and (most of) the songs are high-energy Ramones-core anthems of the type fans have been fiending for. And if youre one of those fiending fans, youre definitely not going to be disappointed. But while Highway to the End gives the fans what they want, its hardly a redundant album. Just like the Ramones fourth album, Road to Ruin, it fleshes out the formula and tests the limits of what the bands sound and songwriting style can accommodate. Actually, its less that Dark Thoughts formula is fleshed out, and more like its stripped to the bone. The opening track, Slept Til Two, is so hooky and memorable that it took me at least half a dozen listens to realize the song has no repeating parts and nothing resembling a chorus. It isnt until the fourth song, Bubbles Gonna Burst, that you get a chorus part that actually repeats. While the songwriting is spare from a musical standpoint, Dark Thoughts squeeze so much emotion into those tight spaces. For all their minimalism and all their Ramones worship, Dark Thoughts are songwriters in the classic sense, and they can convey so much with a few words and (even fewer) chords. As someone who has struggled with depression all my life, Slept Til Two (something Ive done many times) and Groundhog Day feel like perfect encapsulations of what its like to live this way from day to day, each morning feeling like youre starting at the bottom of a steep hill. There are also a wealth of clever turns of phrase to chew on, like the opening lines to Bubbles Gonna Burst: Wrote a letter the other day / All it said was go away / Self addressed return to sender. Dark Thoughts hit you hardest with the feels on Please Dont Be Lonesome, which might shock existing fans with its acoustic intro (but remember: Needles and Pins and Questioningly were on Road to Ruin!), but it works so well, laying aside the bands usual sonic armor to shine a spotlight on the heart-rending vocal performance. I also love that the album doesnt end there, returning (after a nod to Nasty Facts) for Sweet Success, which serves as a coda and a callback to the early morning setting of the opener Slept Til Two. Sweet Success captures the spark of hope (which we depressives must be careful to nurture) that allows us to begin again, to face another day and another set of challenges. The songs refrain of begin again is also an invitation to play Highway to the End again, which youll need to do, because there are so many great parts that only happen once, and so much depth thats only going to reveal itself after many listens.