- Three years after releasing Early Sounds, their first full length album, Thigh Master are unveiling their follow up. Titled Now for Example, it features twelve tunes - most of them coming in under three minutes in length.
The shortness of the songs complements their catchiness, and the raw, lofi, indie, jangling-guitar-driven sound draws unavoidable comparisons with New Zealand bands from the legendary Flying Nun label, such as The Clean and The Bats.
One variance, at least to my ears, is that Thigh Master infuse most of their tunes with a greater sense of wistfulness. There is plenty of energy and awareness, but sometimes just a touch less freneticism than is often present with this style of music.
The band have clearly put the three years since their last album to good use. They moved from their Brisbane birthplace to the metropolis of Melbourne, while fitting in tours of Europe and the USA. While the first album had plenty of good songs, this new one is more consistent with barely a filler amongst them.
The album’s first single, Mould Lines, is a good representation of the rest of the album’s content: fast-paced, catchy and easy to sing along to. The one longer song, The Ballad of The Caxton, is a dirgy, slowly staggering ballad referencing a well known inner-Brisbane watering hole. It provides a nice counterpoint to most of the other songs in pace and style, while containing the same ability to blend the sadness and joy that permeates existence.
Thigh Master’s Now For Example is definitely worth checking out and tuning in to. There's plenty of bittersweetness in rock'n'roll but little that's this accessible, almost instantly engaging. It's like longing for the past, something you lost, only to find it here, right in front of you.
- Andrew Bartlett.