Thunder and Consolation

[Ava Enturin]

T&C was simply the first album I ever heard from them. I remember like yesterday that someone gave me the record and said "listen to it, you'll love it". I did, like a couple of times, before I finally started loving it. Soon after that, the first concert in June 90 and off we go. Never lost track of the band since and still meeting the same guy on concerts occasionally.

For me, T&C is the gateway and additionally hosts one of my all-time favs: Archway Towers.

Anyway, if I would have to pick a favourite album, it would be No Rest. BDAW yeah, too.

[Shush]

Picking an album from you past can involve a bit of self adoration. I think this may be partly why Thunder and Consolation is regarded so highly (as well as it being a superb album).
When I think back to first hearing and loving that album, I am also thinking back to the time I was in my late teens, and at the prime of my young life. People tend to look back on that period of their life with nostalgia.

Its a bit like, people of my my parents age now in their 60s always seem to go on about how good the 1960s were.  People 10 years older than them may well say  the 1950s,were better,  10 year younger, the 1970s, etc.
Are we always remembering the things we liked and were better then, or are we remembering what it felt like being 18 years old ? Its a bit like which is your favorite James Bond.? As a 1970s youngster, for me its Roger Moore.
For many, T&C was there first encounter with NMA, and it will always have that extra special place of fondness for it.
I heard the first three at around the same time and No Rest has always been my favorite. When I was most into that album in the late 1980s, I was on the dole, and I related very much to the lyrics, especially, Young Gifted and Skint. It is still my favorite of the 12 studio albums, but I accept this choice may be heavily laden with sentimentality, and also the fact that I have been listening to it for over 25 years.

When my elder Son started to show an interest in NMA, my first reaction was to lend him T&C, which he did like. I lent him a couple more, and he picked Eight as his favorite. To him at the time, all fresh music.

When (god willing) I have been listening to BDAW for 25 years and  old and decrepit, by then, that may well be my favorite album when I think -- Oh to be in my 40s when I could still see this band live and my legs still worked. 

[NickyG]

I think it’s hard to divorce what you think of certain music and records and how they effect you, from your own life experience, and who you were and ‘where’ you were, when you first got into them. T&C had strong songs, but more than that there was subject matter in the lyrics that no other band at the time would go anywhere near, or if they did, were able to capture with anything like the same level of sincerity, conviction and intensity. It made everything else seem superficial and irrelevant. There were hints of that on the earlier albums, undoubtedly yes, and more to follow on the later ones. But for me it was the first time one of the albums (and therefore the band) stood out not just as better than everything else but in a completely different league.

[DannySan]

Picking an album from you past can involve a bit of self adoration. I think this may be partly why Thunder and Consolation is regarded so highly (as well as it being a superb album).
When I think back to first hearing and loving that album, I am also thinking back to the time I was in my late teens, and at the prime of my young life. People tend to look back on that period of their life with nostalgia.

Its a bit like, people of my my parents age now in their 60s always seem to go on about how good the 1960s were.  People 10 years older than them may well say  the 1950s,were better,  10 year younger, the 1970s, etc.
Are we always remembering the things we liked and were better then, or are we remembering what it felt like being 18 years old ? Its a bit like which is your favorite James Bond.? As a 1970s youngster, for me its Roger Moore.
For many, T&C was there first encounter with NMA, and it will always have that extra special place of fondness for it.
I heard the first three at around the same time and No Rest has always been my favorite. When I was most into that album in the late 1980s, I was on the dole, and I related very much to the lyrics, especially, Young Gifted and Skint. It is still my favorite of the 12 studio albums, but I accept this choice may be heavily laden with sentimentality, and also the fact that I have been listening to it for over 25 years.

When my elder Son started to show an interest in NMA, my first reaction was to lend him T&C, which he did like. I lent him a couple more, and he picked Eight as his favorite. To him at the time, all fresh music.

When (god willing) I have been listening to BDAW for 25 years and  old and decrepit, by then, that may well be my favorite album when I think -- Oh to be in my 40s when I could still see this band live and my legs still worked. 

That is so true. I always list as three of my favourite albums Thunder & Consolation, The Queen Is Dead by the Smiths and Strange Times by the Chameleons. All three of those albums came out when I was in my teens and I love them as much now as I did when I bought them all in the mid/ late 80's.

[Guillaume]

ok, thanks to this thread, i've given another listen this week to "Thunder and consolation" even if i've already listened to it hundreds of times and even if i already knew it, yeah, indeed, it's NMA's best album...EVER.
I can't believe the level of songwriting on this album, the skills of Justin, Robert and Jason...and the sound...and the lyrics...and the various and beautiful, intense feelings you have listening to it.

[wrbones]

To me No Rest was a bit of a letdown after Vengeance very much like Impurity was after T&C. I'm not a muso but I think it may have been the sound or the production. Individually I love just about all the songs but as an album it never really fired for me.

I'm pretty much the opposite on both counts. I find it impossible to compare Vengeance with anything that came after it, it's just too different. I'm a bit the same with both Wire and Devo's first two albums. So I think No Rest is the first "proper" NMA album and, as such, perfectly sets the stage for what comes after. i.e. I think it make sit easier to get into T&C. In turn, T&C makes it easier to appreciate Impurity, which for me is NMA's best album.

IMO, Thunder & Consolation is a perfect album, full of rage and passion.
Fantastic, energetic, poetic....
Intense and powerful music.
The whole album is very consistent, and all tracks are "flowing".
A classic one !

I would personally have to agree with this post as for me it's their most complete work to date!

Again, I'm the complete opposite. I think T&C has some of NMA's best songs - I Love the World is one of my favourite songs of all time - but it also has some very forgettable songs on it. I never skip tracks but if I did I reckon I'd skip more on T&C than pretty much any other NMA album (not counting Eight and Carnival, where I'd skip the whole thing).

Overall I do like T&C, it would probably scrape into my Top 5 NMA albums, and it is definitely from the time they were at the peak of their powers. I prefer to be entertained by lyrics, rather than moved by them, so the lyrical content is not overly important to me. e.g. I love the first It's Immaterial album because the lyrics are funny, not because of what they are trying to say. When it comes to NMA, I'm all about the energy, anger and intensity and there is more of that on several other albums.

[peternotbaldyet]

Being honest, I think Thunder was the first album where lyrically Justin hit his stride across the whole length of the album.His writing matured. The musicality of the album was also more diverse than previous albums. They played 'Archway Towers' at the Manchester Ritz a couple of weeks ago and it still has such power. I think the subject matter of the album was wider and they hit every target. Prior to Thunder, I thought 'Vengeance' was going to be the best they ever did as a complete collection, but I have been proved wrong numerous times since.

[Simon73]

well Thunder and Consolation was the 1st album I bought from the band. And the most incredible thing is that I picked it up among many others in a vynil shop in Innsbruck. I had no idea what it was and I was 18yo at that time (I am now 40). So for sure this is a special album to me. But something which always happened to me with all NMA albums (not with the most recent ones though. let say from Carnival........) is that they grow in me listening after listening. All of them. Also those of which I tought in the beginning they were not that special.............same for this last one. The first time I heard good songs (as Justin said less guitar oriented sound etc......) then the songs took shape in my head and heart and soul...........
simon

[purplehaze]

for me its not just one of my all time favourites for the music,it brings back happy memories of a part/time of my life that was carefree,like a good flashback ,like a soundtrack to a great time in your life

[rick a.]

Definately a top NMA album for me. I loved the production on that one. It had a bigger sound than any of the previous lps. And not a weak tune to be found!

[Amandistan]

I think it's a remarkable album. i became a fan shortly after the release of High. T and C was actually the first album i heard of the band. It was a little late but i thought it was brilliant. Because of it I bought all of the albums and became obsessed with the music. 

[Master Ray]

for me its not just one of my all time favourites for the music,it brings back happy memories of a part/time of my life that was carefree,like a good flashback ,like a soundtrack to a great time in your life

Totally agree with this statement.  I can think of albums that aren't very good but I love listening to them because they take me back to a much happier time... for example, I'm a huge Bowie fan and I recognise how many classics he's made, but I really like 'Never Let Me Down', which is generally considered to be one of his worst... what can I say, it takes me back to the late 80s where I had some of the happiest days of my life with some of the best friends I ever made...

Oh, it's so long ago now... 

[Guillaume]

The american writer Kevin Brockmeier loves NMA and THUNDER AND CONSOLATION:

http://www.oxfordamerican.org/articles/2010/dec/02/contributor-q/

What musician or band is grievously underrated?

Do you have a few hours? To name one—and just one—of many, the great British post-punk band New Model Army, whose best album is 1989's THUNDER AND CONSOLATION; who're still writing their impassioned pugilistic questing anthems of rage and hope after thirty years; and who really should have been U2.

"Archway towers" one of the 1OO best London songs, according to TimeOut!:

http://www.timeout.com/london/music/the-100-best-london-songs-98

[Master Ray]

The american writer Kevin Brockmeier loves NMA and THUNDER AND CONSOLATION:

http://www.oxfordamerican.org/articles/2010/dec/02/contributor-q/

What musician or band is grievously underrated?

Do you have a few hours? To name one—and just one—of many, the great British post-punk band New Model Army, whose best album is 1989's THUNDER AND CONSOLATION; who're still writing their impassioned pugilistic questing anthems of rage and hope after thirty years; and who really should have been U2.

A great article, but NMA should have been U2?

Nah, I'd have hated to see Justin titting about in wraparound shades in front of pretentious video screens whilst wearing a glitter-suit whilst throwing out patronising sound-bites aimed at the cause-of-the-week...

 

"Archway towers" one of the 1OO best London songs, according to TimeOut!:

http://www.timeout.com/london/music/the-100-best-london-songs-98

[Guillaume]

I mean, sure Thunder was great back in '66 or whenever it was but when I play it these days it doesn't hit me like the records from the last ten years do...

I've gave copies of the cd to three friends of mine who didn't know NMA, because i said to myself the general consensus is that "Thunder and consolation" is NMA's masterpiece for the lyrics, the melodies, the sound, the musicianship  ...strangely enough ANY of my friends liked the album  but two of them liked "Navigating by the stars" and "Vengeance" for the "raw, punk sound" (according to a friend)...they didn"t like the lyrism vibe of "Thunder"...