Track listing: Intro, Spark of the Snake, The Story of the Observer, Moving On, Marionette Doll, Through the Ages, Subjective Mind, Sunlight through Stained Glass Window, Interlude, A Whore a Dead End Door, Thoughtful Years, The Signal, For Those Who Want to Listen, Shades of Summer, The Darkness of My Life
There are some records that are difficult to review because you're constantly trying to separate the music itself from the expectations we bring to music. Thunderlightning and the Experience is one of those.
From the project's YouTube description:
"A project about emotional openness without obligation to genre. Songs move between forms. Meaning emerges across them. Nothing is fixed except the act of expression. This is not a collection. It is an experience."
That's actually a pretty good description of what you're about to hear in this eponymous album. Thunder is the sole member of Thunderlightning and the Experience, a genre-fluid project influenced by artists including The Pixies, Saosin, The Mighty Lemon Drops and AFI. There's a rock foundation here, sometimes leaning toward metal, sometimes garage rock, sometimes punk, and occasionally something that's harder to categorize.
The vocals are probably going to be the biggest dividing line for listeners. They're not conventionally polished, and they're not always delivered in a conventional way. Sometimes Thunder sings rhythmically with the music; other times the vocals become almost freeform, following the emotion of the moment rather than adhering strictly to the song's rhythm.
And strangely enough, that reminded me of a band I played in during college. We were called Grubworm, and we played exactly one show—at a biker bar on a snowy night in San Angelo, Texas. We had a few television sets onstage, all displaying nothing but white static, like broken TVs, with the word "Submit" written across the screens in marker. Yeah. We weren't exactly aiming for commercial radio either. But you never know--that songwriter/singer now holds a doctorate in Public Policy and is an Endowed Professor at a large state university.
There's something about Thunderlightning and the Experience that brought that memory back—not because the music sounds exactly like Grubworm, but because of that same willingness to make music without worrying too much about whether someone else would approve of the way it was supposed to sound.
"Spark of the Snake" kicks things off with distorted electric guitar, a simple drum-machine backbeat and keyboards that add some occasional melodic elements. The vocals are brash, but there's no mistaking the commitment behind them.
"The Story of the Observer" is more melodic and has a garage-rock quality that particularly connected with me. There are some interesting guitar leads and licks scattered throughout the song, and again I found myself thinking about those early bands I played in.
"Moving On" introduces some meter changes, while the vocals become more harmonized. The harmonies don't always resolve in the ways you might expect, but that's part of what makes the project interesting. Thunder isn't necessarily trying to make every musical decision comfortable.
There are also little moments that reveal just how personal this music is. In "Through the Ages," around the 1:30 mark, Thunder holds a long vocal note before taking a huge, dramatic breath and launching into the next phrase. It's the sort of thing a producer might have suggested doing differently. Here, it feels less like a mistake to be corrected and more like we're hearing the person behind the recording.
"Subjective Mind" begins with a much more demonstrative rhythmic intro before picking up the pace and moving into something approaching pop-punk. An unexpected twist comes later in the album through "Interlude," a 35-second solo piano piece that's almost startling in its simplicity. It's sweet and unassuming, and serves as a brief breath before the album moves on.
Lyrically, the songs tend toward love and emotion. And honestly, they're sweet sentiments. There's an openness to the writing that matches the project's stated philosophy. These aren't detached observations; they're expressions of feeling.
Vocally, I kept thinking about Daniel Johnston—not necessarily because Thunder sounds like Johnston, but because of the approach to singing. Neither artist is defined by conventional vocal technique. What they share, to my ears, is the willingness to sing from the heart, with passion, without seeming to be particularly concerned about whether the performance will survive critical analysis.
And that's ultimately what I hear in Thunderlightning and the Experience: expression before convention.
It isn't polished rock. And it's not trying to be. It's one musician following ideas through different forms and genres, sometimes hitting something melodic and familiar, sometimes wandering somewhere considerably stranger. The rough edges are impossible to ignore, particularly in the vocals, but they're also inseparable from the emotional honesty of the project.
Thunderlightning and the Experience calls this album an experience rather than a collection of songs. After spending some time with it, I think that's probably the right way to approach it.
Don't listen to this one looking for perfection. Listen for the person behind it.