Another Form of Relief

Thomas Tantrum are band that played a gig night I was part of last year, and if I’m honest, I wasn’t all that thrilled by their set. It certainly wasn’t bad, and the crowd seemed to enjoy them, but it was too all over the place for my own tastes. Since then I haven’t really listened to them any further, until I got hold of their first full length album a few days. If I didn’t know it to be the case, I wouldn’t even think it was the same band. Every song is precise, melodic and knows exactly what it wants to do, and then does it. I don’t know what has changed, whether it’s just a more refined songwriting style or a producer has reigned them in somewhat, but it’s a massive improvement. Songs like Work It above and the superb Shake It Shake It position them perfectly as the logical successors to the mighty Life Without Buildings.