A City by the Light Divided - THURSDAY
After the strife Thursday’s members have endured (a near-breakup, divorce, substance abuse), a triumphant song called “We Will Overcome” was almost inevitable on new album “A City by the Light Divided,” even if it does not relate to the band’s troubles. Thursday has crafted a quality album that is enhanced by Andrew Everding’s keyboards, which flesh out the music’s earnest dimensions. His organ is reverent for “Sugar in the Sacrament” and braces the weighty instrumental “Arc-Lamps, Signalflares, a Shower of White (The Light).” Nostalgic, echoing guitars set the tone for fierce romantic tale “Running From the Rain,” but things turn pensive when Geoff Rickly sings of loneliness on “The Lovesong Writer,” a track with a crashing wall of percussion and distortion. “Into the Blinding Light” and “At This Velocity” explode in a similar vein. —Billboard
