No Devolución

Thursday have created an album that is not only new and unique, but also unmistakably their own.

No Devolución is an album that could easily make converts out of the skeptical, allowing the band to reintroduce themselves to the world over a decade after their first album was released.

Working with Flaming Lips producer Dave Fridmann, they graft 4AD atmospherics, frosty power-pop hooks, and Mogwai pedal-effects crescendos onto their post-hardcore template, which now churns even more fiercely with an expanded palette.

What marks “No Devolucion” as an improvement over 2006’s “A City by the Light Divided” and 2009’s “Common Existence” is that frontman Geoff Rickly and his bandmates have finally written a batch of songs worthy of those complicated arrangements.

Instead of just beating around the prog-rock bush, Thursday now embrace their artsier unknown.

No Devolucion is a record made by a band that have grown vastly in the years they’ve been a band and if this record is anything to go by, Thursday are here to stay for a lot longer.

At best, No Devolución can somewhat remind you of other artists you enjoy (Pumpkins, Waits, My Bloody Valentine, even a bit of Fugazi). At worst, it’s paint-by-numbers emo.