The Top 10 Thursday Songs Of All Time
Thursday first made their mark as a Victory Records post-hardcore band at a time when emo was a sellable product on MTV, but over the course of six full-lengths and a split with Envy, the band built an incredibly diverse catalog of music. From the mid-’90s emo of their first record Waiting to the reverberating post-punk of No Devolución, here are the ten best Thursday songs.
10. “Porcelain” (Waiting, 1999)
The opening track on Thursday’s debut Waiting is without a doubt one of the heaviest songs the band ever wrote. The band’s dynamism was introduced in a big way, with Chamberlain-esque post-hardcore choruses crossed with the unique hardcore of late ’90s Philly legends Ink & Dagger. And that intro? If the production was a little dirtier, it’d double for the first couple of seconds of a Chokehold song.
9. “Running From The Rain” (A City By The Light Divided, 2006)
A City By The Light Divided served as a thin border between the emotional punk of Thursday’s early years and the dynamic indie rock the band was writing in the second half of its existence. This song was one of the brightest examples of that, with the atmosphere of the band’s later work layered on top of one of the most classically emo songs they ever wrote.
8. “Love Has Led Us Astray” (Common Existence, 2009)
Thursday always drew influence from late ’70s/early ’80s British post-punk, particularly the pioneers of the genre, Joy Division. This song, the penultimate track on their fifth record, is one of the best examples of when Thursday pulled back from their emo leanings to write driving, thoughtful rock music.
7. “Division St.” (War All The Time, 2003)
New Brunswick, New Jersey is home to where a thriving punk scene bands like Thursday, Lifetime, and Saves The Day first cut their teeth. The college town featured prominently in the band’s music throughout its existence, even as its members moved away. This song off of War All The Time, about losing friends to heavy drugs and being stabbed, is one of the most depressing the band ever wrote.
6. “War All The Time” (War All The Time, 2003)
The title track on Thursday’s third record is one of the all-time greatest songs about the suburbs. Set against the backdrop of post-9/11 New York, and featuring a slow, dramatic build that boils over at the end of the song, the track encapsulates living in the shadow of a major metropolis in turmoil and the lasting effect it had on Rickly’s youth.
5. “Understanding In A Car Crash” (Full Collapse, 2001)
For a lot of fans, this song started it all. The opening track on Full Collapse was (and remains) the band’s most popular song by a long shot, with music video play on MTV that launched them to a level of success that so many bands tried to emulate in the following years. So it’s easy to forget how good this song actually is. The pounding drums, the magnificent dual guitar work of Steve Pedulla and Tom Keeley, and the impeccable bridge (featuring the Neil Young reference) will never get old.
4. “Jet Black New Year” (Five Stories Falling EP, 2002)
The Five Stories Falling EP was released mostly to satisfy Thursday’s contract with Victory Records before they could sign to Island for the release of War All The Time, and as such, it’s an EP with four live versions of Full Collapse songs with just one new song. The one studio song, however, justifies the purchase of the whole EP; it’s a fantastic Thursday deep cut that would have featured prominently on either Full Collapse or War All The Time. Oh, there’s also the backing vocals from the singer of an obscure, local North Jersey band popularly known as My Chemical Romance.
3. “Stay True” (No Devolución, 2011)
On every Thursday record, the band experimented, but on their last album they radically overhauled their sound. The closer on the band’s swan song “Stay True” is one of the most honest and forthright songs that Thursday ever wrote, with Rickly trading his trademark metaphorical lyrics for the belligerence of lines like, “Disregard the critics’ praise / They’ll be the first to tell you the news that you’ve sold your soul.” A fitting end to a masterful career.
2. “Standing On The Edge Of Summer” (Full Collapse, 2001)
I’m not even going to pretend I’m not biased: I fell in love with Thursday because of this song. I connected on deeply personal level with Rickly watching his grandmother die, as I was going through the loss of my grandfather the summer I heard Full Collapse for the first time. Thursday’s audience in its most popular period was made up mostly of 15 to 21-year-olds grappling with the issues that come with growing up. One of those issues is dealing with loss, and no better song in Thursday’s catalog deals with loss in the way that “Standing On The Edge Of Summer” does. That’s the beauty of a great band and a great song. On a record full of them, this great song stands out as best.
1. “As He Climbed The Dark Mountain” (split with Envy, 2008)
Ignore the circumstances surrounding the release, a split with Japanese screamo legends Envy that came two years after a record that was probably the worst the band ever released. You can also ignore the almost perfect timing of the release––in the middle of Wall Street’s free fall––with lyrics on one song (“An Absurd And Unrealistic Dream Of Peace”) seemingly tailor-made for the Great Recession.
You can ignore all of that. Even if you do, “As He Climbed The Dark Mountain” is one of the best emo songs of all time, and this release is one of the best from both bands. With frantic drumming, fantastic guitar work and Rickly’s precision in knowing exactly when to push his voice and writing to the limit, this is the song that you should play for someone who’s trying to get into Thursday, because this is the best Thursday song of all time. The band re-recorded it for Common Existence, but the production on this version is absolutely perfect.
