Album: Let’s Bottle Bohemia
Year: 2004
. . .
Like so many other young bands, The Thrills found it more difficult on their second album, 2004’s Let’s Bottle Bohemia then they had on their 2003 debut, So Much For The City. With only a year between records, the songwriting just wasn’t there, and while they didn’t write another batch of songs about how great they imagined it was in California, not even guest shots by Peter Buck and Van Dyke Parks could make a difference.
And of course, neither man was anywhere the album’s best track, “Found My Rosebud,” which starts out with lead singer Conor Deasey’s raspy tenor over a pair of opening verses that build and build.
I don’t mind if I hurt you
If I hurt you
If I hurt you
And leave this guilt behindSo here I go burning bridges
Burning bridges
Burning bridges
Did I play my hand too soon?
And what they’re building to is a chorus that is the song’s reason to exist, a jumble of piano and organ from Kevin Horan over kickdrum and doubletime from Ben Carrigan, all of which sounds like it’s great lost Rod Stewart song.
So for the first time in my life
Feel like a country boy caught in headlights
I found my rosebud
I found my rosebudArrived in New York City
Feel like a scapegoat before a committee
I found my rosebud
I found my rosebud
Oh, whoaaaa-whoa
What I like about “Found My Rosebud,” besides the stop and start arrangement and the soaring chorus is the Citizen Kane reference as a metaphor for falling in love, as well as the outtro, which adds a tinge of lyrical sadness even as the music hits its peak.
It’s not like
I said
That I love youMe in New York city
Feels like the whole place came out to meet meExcept youuuuuuuu
Hooooooooo
Ouch! So my guess is that his rosebud didn’t find their rosebud, which kinda sucks.
Let’s Bottle Bohemia did well on both the Irish charts — which it topped — and the U.K. charts, where it made #9, and it even made the US album charts, albeit at #152, but it’s possible that all of those numbers were leftover goodwill from So Much For The City, because when the Thrills came back with 2007’s Teenager, their audience had definitely gotten more selective, and it sold way way less than the first two, after which The Thrills went “on hiatus,” which I guess means they could still release a fourth album at some point.
“Found My Rosebud”
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