Seem to be a few of these bands knocking around at the moment – ones comprising old Gainesville heads who’ve ditched the ragged punk of yore and decided instead to smash out some king-size rock. Thunderclap are, I’ll admit, one that have given me a certain amount of trouble. On the one hand, their music appears fairly workaday. Each song is built from a handful of solid riffs, with vocals that’re by turns husky, hoary or melodic. In terms of construction and delivery, there really aren’t many surprises, and the first-glance impression is of yet another band trying and failing to be Neurosis. But there’s something here that means they can’t be written off quite that easily. There’s a degree of pained soulfulness that’s hard not to get on board with, and every once in a while – the track ‘Low End’, for example – they hit a supremely sweet spot that recalls the simple, mesmeric head-nod of Lungfish, Om or Arbouretum. So it’s a puzzling one: a record I’m more than sure I’m not in love with, and yet one that has nevertheless kept on luring me back.
