Noisy pop rock act Thumper impress with the infectious Delusions of Grandeur.
Dublin-based Thumper feature the loud racket of six musicians making psych-infused pop and punk (but definitively not pop-punk) music. Accordingly, their debut album Delusions of Grandeur appears unassuming at the surface, packed to the gills with hooks and booming guitar leads. However, a closer look reveals some of the oddities this band brings to the table. With two drums, quieter post-punk sensibilities, and a fascinating suite of tracks to close with, they carve out a lane of their own and show mouthwatering potential.
The cosmos needs you glistening,
Needs you on your knees and always listening.
I kiss the fist and raise it to the air,
The heat of cliché singeing all the hair on my back.
Opener “Fear Of Art” is a raucous affair. Fast-paced, edgy, and already looking for a brawl, it previews the beat-up nature of the first segment of the album. As “25” spirals into darkness before jumping back into punky brashness, and “Greedy Guts” gasps for breath, it builds a sense of “what will they do next?”, which is straightaway followed up by the acoustic-heavy “Strychnine” – all stand-out tracks by their own merit. The first single, however, lands back in the territory the album started in:
Cross my heart, hope to die,
Hope to God I am remembered as The Dudest Dude,
Misunderstood.
I am humble to a point, I guess.
Though not among the album’s more impressive or memorable tracks, it does vibrate with youth and energy. Particularly rooted in the band’s tendency to use humor, and by extension, the theme of humor as a coping mechanism, it places a point on the murkier moments hiding beneath the bravado. Indeed, the louder Thumper get on Delusions of Grandeur, the less seriously they seem to want you to take them. Subsequently, “Topher Grace” follows a similar formula, quieting down into more tender and somber tones as it decays into “Overbite”:
The teeth fall from the gum,
Soft like a starting gun.
Dreams drain the blood from cheek.
Thunder clowns boom, can you hear it?
Without question, “Overbite” features the best guitar work on the album, a memorizing lead riff that draws towards a tight, taut hook that hasn’t left my mind since the first listen. It sounds markedly 90s, with elements of alternative and grunge coming to the fore. The bridge may be the album’s overall highlight, where everything stops for just a moment, allowing the space the album desperately needs.
Additionally, this song is the first of three in a suite to close off the album seguing into instrumental “Ghost”, another longer track that demands attention. While the first two-thirds of the album could admittedly use refinement, these tracks could live on an incredible island of their own. “Down in Heaven” serves to complete the ride with a soft-spoken and vulnerable review of the events, a well-deserved cool-down after a barrage before it. In short, this band is capable of bending their sound to meet any situation, a trait which they are still learning how to wield.
7.5/10
Delusions of Grandeur comes out Friday, March 18 on Eva Magical Music Sounds. You can order it here.