Hawthorne Heights was my first thought immediately upon reading the quote, lots of ripping off Thursday in their music, but the timeline doesn't line up. Ohio Is For Lovers didn't come out until 2004.
There's been a ton of talk about them recently so I went back to my favorite, A City by the Light Divided and it's absolutely one of the greatest albums of all time. It does everything right. The production/arrangement is absolutely incredible and unlike anyone else. The way they use noisy trashy drum sounds against delayed/reverbed guitars so it's beautiful but still aggressive ("Into the Blinding Light") is brilliant. And I can't think of any other band in the fucking world that would put that glock in the loud part on "Telegraph Avenue Kiss" It's also 20000% one of the best keyboard records in the history of rock music. That running lick at the end of "Into the Blinding Light", the organ sound on "Arc Lights", literally all of "The Lovesong Writer". Every moment they use keys it's thoughtful and totally inventive. And it has one of the best closing tracks ever. "Dizzy" is probably the only emo/scene/post-hardcore-adjacent one that I'd rate ahead of "Autumn Leaves Revisited"
I'm all aboard the ACBTLD train. It's my favorite Thursday record, and I hate how people constantly shit on it. It's one of a few records I love that demand to be listened to entirely front to back.
There's a batch of albums in that window that the majority of the closed-minded (mostly) dudes on AP.net ripped apart and killed the bands' momentum that, in hindsight, are some of the best of the 2000s: A City by the Light Divided, Even If It Kills Me, Folie a Deux, (to a less venemous degree) Chase This Light
love this and love acbtld - my favourite Thursday album. Apologies for my ignorance but what’s Dizzy from?
I think Chase This Light deserves criticism: far too saccharine, sugar sweet. "Dizzy," the title track and "Big Casino" are great but there's some bad tracks on there. To stay on topic though City by the Light is great.
I got to go on Thursday's bus like a week before ND came out and hear a few tracks. I think they played Sparks, Fast to the End, and Turnpike Divides. Also I was wearing a Touche Amore hoodie and Jeremy was just there chillin so that was cool. After Turnpikes Geoff said they were gonna play it as their closer but then their set ran late so they cut it lol.
I'm trying to recall what the issue was with ACBTLD. I think people thought the single was too poppy or something?
all of this band's records are very good and city is one of the best ones. glad i heard it like a year before i discovered ap.net forums so my opinion of it wasn't ruined haha
My history of ACBTLD first reaction was maybe similar to AP, but not as extreme. I was absolutely obsessed with FC/WATT, and honestly was too immature at the time for such a sprawling album from them. I didn’t really like Counting as a single before the album came out, and I’m sure that didn’t help. Sugar In The Sacrament, The Lovesong Writer, and Autumn Leaves Revisited were for whatever reason too “experimental” for me back then. I obviously grew to adore the record, and didn’t discover AP til ‘09 so by then wasn’t aware there was lukewarm first reactions to it.
I don't think I even knew AP ever had forums. I do remember going on AP back in that era, but I'm pretty sure I just read through the news comments. It wasn't until Chorus that I realized there were actual forums/discussions outside of the news articles.
One thing about City. I really don't like "we will overcome." Given the historical significance/cultural ubiquity of "we shall overcome" in the Civil Rights movement, this song has always felt a bit tone deaf. I appreciate the song's de-colonial anti-imperialist , anti-racist messaging, but also, it feels a bit too obvious and not really Thursday's song to sing? If that makes sense?