"UNDERTONES"
THOMPSON SPRINGS
THOMPSON SPRINGS are:
Matt Smith: Vocals, Guitars
Jacob Bicknase: Backing Vocals, Drums, Piano, Synth
Andy Goitia: Backing Vocals, Bass Guitar Electric Pianowith
Patrick Sansone: 12 String Guitar (tracks 3,7), Mellotron (tracks 4,6), Keyboards/Synth (tracks 1, 3, 6, 7), Percussion
Burr Oak: Backing Vocals (track 7)
All music and lyrics by Matt Smith
Engineered and Mixed by Andy Freeman
Produced by Patrick Sansone
Released July 31, 2020
Over these past five or six years, as I have been delving into the bands, musicians and artists that populate the Madison music community here in Wisconsin, many of the discoveries have arrived from my own investigations and chance happenings.
And yet, in the case of Thompson Springs, they found me.
Now that it has been perhaps somewhere between three and four years since I have made my acquaintance with the members of Thompson Springs, the origin of how we met is a a tad hazy. So...if memory serves, Thompson Springs' bandleader/songwriter/singer/guitarist Matt Smith either found me through an album review posted on this blogsite or else, one of our local musicians mentioned me to him. But regardless of how, whatever means Smith used, he was thus inspired to seek me out via my Savage Radio show's Facebook page, to where he sent me a message informing about his band and the then upcoming release of their 5 song EP entitled "Fond Regards" (released August 11, 2017), and perhaps might I give it a listen.
Upon that listen, I was greeted with an unassuming yet undeniably skilled musical statement that sounded as if it would make for a perfect fit with the Americana format that is the musical bedrock of my radio home base of WVMO. And yet, it also stretched its boundaries into areas of the type of rock, folk and psychedelia that would find their way onto Savage Radio. The EP was very good and after some back and forth, I was graced with an on-air telephone interview with the Chicago based Smith and the Madison based Jacob Bicknase, who has performed with the band for 9 years (as well as performing guest drumming duties for both jazz composer/pianist Wilder Deitz and the alternative electronic pop of Kainalu).
Since that time, we continued to keep tabs upon each other and on the Thompson Springs end of things, the band has seemingly been tireless with consistent, constant touring around the world, with rare pit stops in Madison, one of which where we were able to finally cross paths in person. Somewhere, somehow within that time period since their EP, Thompson Springs have continued to plug away and the results have arrived with their debut full length album.
With "Undertones," produced by Patrick Sansone of Wilco (who made a guest appearance upon "Fond Regards"), Thompson Springs has more than fully realized the promise of their past work. This is the sound of a band stretching and reaching further and in doing so, their unquestionable diligence and determination has afforded them richly with a collection of 8 new songs that are stronger, tighter compositions, musically more agile, and a level of recording prowess that has resulted in a beautifully captured presentation. In short, Thompson Springs have raised their own bar significantly.
Side A opens with the blazing, yet humorously titled "Slightly Sexy," which races out of the speakers with Matt Smith's razor sharp guitars shooting out a Chuck Berry-esque fanfare. As the rhythm section of Andy Goitia's bass and Jacob Bicknase's full bellied drums provide that extra kick, Thompson Springs' album opener is the soundtrack to a young man on the prowl, yet one who is more sincere than sinister, more laconic than lascivious, one who is fully mesmerized and therefore, a bit upended as he inquires of his hoped for hook-up, "Can I sleep next to you?/Can I surf your mind through?" And through the narrator's inquisitiveness, we can infer insecurity as well as innocence making the song's title more self-reflexive than outwardly descriptive.
Over a bed of acoustic guitars, the sunset sounds of "Sirens" appears to deliver what feels to be an interior monologue, about a relationship, either real or imagined but one constructed of impressions and images as opposed to more concrete events and emotions. I thoroughly enjoyed the juxtapositions contained through this song, especially one that creates such a gentle tapestry although Smith consistently sings of the sirens blaring inside of his head. Furthermore, when Smith sings the lyric, "Imperfections feel better, they show true weather," a line that to me felt as if the narrator is celebrating the reality of his affections rather than the fantasy, the sentiment is heard over a bed of pastoral psychedelia as presented via "Candid colors of fading summers," which itself is offset by the rhythmic push of Goitia and Bicknase, creating the very turbulence that insures that you can never fully fall into repose.
Reminiscent of "Dandelion Queen" from "Fond Regards," the subtlety Dylan-esque "Deadly Stare" emerges seductively with its dreamtime soundscapes and impressions of a fractured relationship.
"An angry flip of hair, another deadly stare
Close but still so far, touching your arm trying to find your heart
A scary start, interrupted by years apart
Intermission of love, weighing down on my head
Your lips bleed into me, a new life that I need
Your touch blows me apart, it's been hard to steady my heart
And it's been hard to steady my heart..."
What happens when relationships are placed onto hiatus, whether intentional or accidental, whether desired or unwanted? For all of the emotional twists and turns when creating romantic relationships, beginning as strangers and building into intimacy, what happens to that very same closeness when you become strangers again, albeit strangers firmly connected with a history. "Deadly Stare," again provides those subtle sonic juxtapositions with its gentle psychedelia belying the emotional ebb and flow that embodies what once was and the questions of what it could be again, or still or anything at all.
"Rainbow" appears as if imbedded within a cloud of dreams and augmented by a soundscape that feels decidedly wintry. Through red moons, black clouds and departing January birds, our narrator exists within a state of travel, yet one that suggests being internal rather than physical.
"We found your place late at night, the headlights turned bright
In my imaginary storyline, I was just in time...
...I lived for awhile in your head
Dreams flying and our thoughts began to blend
Look at the bigger picture won't you please
I had to break out of your box to join your company..."
Finding union through separation. Invented realities to discern painful truths. And all delivered through hazy mellotrons, Jacob Bicknase's searching, seeking piano combined with the steady path of his drum kit brush strokes and Matt Smith's pensive vocals and guitars, Side One concludes in a trail of memories that refuse to fade easily.
"Over The Hill" opens Side Two with a blast and a swagger. Matt Smith's guitars, which includes a dusty electric tremolo, plus the full band's stunning backing harmony vocals, congeal beautifully in a selection that feverishly continues themes and emotions previously established, from love gone wrong, separation, regret, loss and mourning. Yet this time, the tone of the performance is more tortured and intense. To that end, "Came From" approaches the subject matter from a more reflective, wistful vantage point suggesting, if not resolution, but acceptance of what once was and what forever lingers.
"I saw you staring at me and decided to say hello
Where you going now?
And when we parted, it appeared there was some allure
We were both longing for...
...You were awaiting for
The slow speed train
I was leaving down
Another lane
Where you came from?"
By this stage, "Undertones" feels like a conceptual work detailing love and loss and culminating with "Downswing," which feels tailor made for a solitary night at the barstool, consumed with drink and loneliness. Yet what really surprised me the most is the album's finale, "American Rug," which unexpectedly widens its canvas from the introspective to the societal anxiety currently engulfing all of us.
"There's an American rug that we're all stepping on
It gets pulled and shoved and does us all harm
Swallowed up in fog in the early morning shine
The dreams you dream while working are getting left behind."
Matt Smith sings with a knowing earnestness and supported by a musical backdrop in which Thompson Springs lays down the guitars and moves the drums aside in favor of a piano and keyboard driven hymn for a nation and its people trapped within an on-going crisis.
In some respects, it did feel jarring to have a song such as this one conclude the album which had so far not addressed anything remotely approaching this arena. And yet, perhaps, it is indeed supposed to be this jarring. That even as painful and as consuming as tales that depict the affairs of the heart, from a variety of angels and emotional landscapes can be and often are, what does it all means when we are all falling apart in a country that is progressively failing us? Or, the song, and therefore, the album in its entirety, is representative of the interior worlds of any and all of us in our relationships, even as the country is falling apart.
Whatever its intention, "American Rug" closes "Undertones" in somber, sobering elegy.
Despite the muted, dour tonality of the subject matter within the songs, Thompson Springs' "Undertones" is the sound of a band ascending. All of the years together, working, playing, writing and touring have undoubtedly proven themselves with the rewards of an album as solid as this one, so much so, that it already feels like the work of deeply seasoned artists rather than ones on the rise.
The musicianship is clean, crisp and purposeful and as with all of the bands and artists that I have been so fortunate to meet and experience firsthand, Thompson Springs is yet another collective that understands sharply that the song itself is the star above any individual player. No one necessarily calls attention to themselves but at the same time, it is definitely through their skill and tastefulness that we notice how gifted these musicians truly are.
Matt Smith, Andy Goitia and Jacob Bicknase are all listening closely to each other. Pushing each other when needed, while also allowing each other ample space as well. Essentially, all three members make everything sound so easy and yet, we should realize that any implied simplicity is purely deceptive because it does indeed take considerable woodshedding to ensure these performances are delivered so confidently, smoothly and expressively.
Even moreso, is Matt Smith, who is finding himself growing as a songwriter handsomely. Much like Tom Petty and Jeff Tweedy, he is indeed finding that extremely delicate balance between aggressiveness and vulnerability, the accessible and the poetic, all the while making the songs sound deceptively simple. Songs that could be played around a campfire or smoky bar yet are complex in their composition and execution.
It is truly a pleasure and privilege to hear the growth and development of a songwriter and a band, especially when they emerge with a work that is a revelatory as "Undertones." It is a work of ghostly emotional shadings housed inside gorgeously composed, arranged and performed songs that will reward your repeated listenings with a variety of sonic textures that consistently enhance and elevate as you and the songs get to know each other better.
And trust me, if you haven't known of Thompson Springs before now, the time has more than arrived.
