The Thrills
Teenager

By Jeff Ehrbar

Music researcher Daniel Levitson holds that great music “transports us to another place.” In the case of Teenager, the Thrills’ great new CD, we’re transported to that difficult time known as the transitive years of young adulthood. This time of transition, as depicted by Thrills’ Conor Deasy, is marked by moving away — moving away from home, family, loved ones and — in the case of Deasy, a Dublin, Ireland native — moving abroad.
“But now you’re home/because you can’t run forever,” Deasy sings on the opening cut, “Midnight Choir,” a spiraling anthem in the style of Death Cab for Cutie’s “Marching Bands of Manhattan.” But Deasy’s observation is ambivalent; while his loyalties are to his home and friends, his drive for independence wins out — “by dawn we’ll be out of here” he sings later in the song. On the unapologetic “I’m So Sorry,” he explains his flight, stating that “I’d be lost if I stayed.”

It’s the forthrightness of Teenager that makes it so engaging. While the Thrills’ debut, So Much for the City, showcased some catchy guitar pop, it often staggered under the weight of Americana folk rock. Teenager has no such hesitation. On the first single, “Nothing Changes Around Here,” producer Tony Hoffer (Beck, the Kooks) applies his signature layering of chimes, piano and multiple vocals to create a “wall of sound” similar to that of the Flaming Lips or Sufjan Stevens. With Daniel Ryan’s economic guitar line confidently guiding the song, Deasy recognizes his relationship isn’t as grown-up as it seems: “I demanded an explanation/you said I was not your father/and you didn’t owe me one.” 

To Deasy, love is often a casualty in youth. With Ryan’s guitar again anchoring the enchanting pop melody on “I Came A Long Way,” Deasy bemoans not finding love —  “those smug lovers/might as well rub it in my face” — and chastises an old girlfriend’s boyfriend who “plagiarizes someone else’s life/and passes it off as his own.”   On the deceptively upbeat “Long Forgotten,” Deasy analogizes being haunted by a lost love to “a long forgotten song/but everyone still sings along”; he sadly notes that “people learn to let go.” Deasy’s disillusionment goes beyond love. On “Midnight Choir” he chides his former religious beliefs, alluding to “a hymn we used to believe it.” On “Restaurant” he berates his class-conscious girlfriend (“the rich are born free/and that’s how you wanted to be”) as much as an exploitative former boss (“he was a beggar on a horse/he was neither brave nor bold/he watched our jobs get sold”).