A City by the Light Divided

A City by the Light Divided
Studio album by Thursday
Released May 2, 2006
Recorded late 2004 – early 2006 @ Tarbox Studios, Cassadaga, New York
Genre Post-hardcore, post-punk revival, alternative rock
Length 45:56
Label Island (US); Victory, Hassle (UK)
Producer Dave Fridmann
Thursday chronology
War All the Time
(2003)		 A City by the Light Divided
(2006)		 Kill the House Lights
(2007)
Singles from A City by the Light Divided
  1. "Counting 5-4-3-2-1"
    Released: February 5th, 2006
  2. "At This Velocity"
    Released: 2007
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic(75/100) [1]
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic [2]
Alternative Press [1]
The A.V. ClubB+ [3]
Entertainment WeeklyA− [4]
NME(7/10) [1]
Now [1]
PopMatters [5]
Robert ChristgauC+ [6]
Rolling Stone [7]
Stylus MagazineA− [8]

A City by the Light Divided is the fourth full-length album by Thursday, released by Island Records on May 2, 2006. It reached #20 on the Billboard 200.[9]

Vocalist Geoff Rickly comments on the album's intent:

I think it was, "How do we keep the urgency and the excitement of what Thursday's doing?", which to me has always been a chemistry kind of thing, like the way the band fits together and pops into place and stuff. How do we do that but make it more multi-dimensional? We didn't focus at all. We put anything we were mildly interested in there and said, "Let's juxtapose this into the mix." So we ended up with big sort of ballads that were almost like U2 and some grindcore stuff and some really blasty, screamy shit, and other stuff...I would love to leave some sort of legacy. But I just want to get to a place where we're not living or dying by the trends. There's a few bands in every genre that don't leave the genre, don't say "we're not doing this anymore" but kind of outlast it. I would really like to be the Sonic Youth of our scene. That would be really rad.
— Geoff Rickly,

Prior to the album's release, in Fall 2005, five Thursday demo songs were stolen from My American Heart's tour manager's iPod. Rickly had recently collaborated with My American Heart on the track "We Are the Fabrication" for their album The Meaning in Makeup. The band issued a statement on their official website stating that they were disappointed the unfinished products leaked, but that they were glad that people took that much interest in their music. The band confirmed the title of one demo, "At This Velocity" and promised it would make their upcoming album. Three other songs ("The Other Side of the Crash/Over and Out (Of Control)", "Telegraph Avenue Kiss", and "Autumn Leaves Revisited") would also make the album; the demo versions of these songs are quite different. One more demo song had not been released until recently, in the form of "Last Call" from the band's fifth album, Common Existence.

Reception

By June 2006, the album had sold over 81,000 copies.[10]

The album so far has a score of 75 out of 100 from Metacritic based on "generally favorable reviews".[1] AbsolutePunk gave it a score of 90% and said that " just like the Buffalo Bills, it’s not about how you start the game, but about how strong you can comeback and finish, and A City By The Light Divided exemplifies this very well."[11] Blender gave it a score of four stars out of five and called it "A widescreen goth-punk stunner."[1] Billboard gave it a positive review and called it "A quality album."[1] Some reviews are average or mixed: Uncut gave it three stars out of five and said, "A sprinkle of Flaming Lips fairy-dust may be just what the genre needs to slip its genre straitjacket."[1] Melodic.net also gave it a score of three stars out of five and said it was "not a superb album but it's a helluva lot better than War All the Time."[12]

Track listing

All lyrics written by Geoff Rickly, all music composed by Thursday.

No. Title Length
1. "The Other Side of the Crash/Over and Out (Of Control)"   4:41
2. "Counting 5-4-3-2-1"   3:19
3. "Sugar in the Sacrament"   5:12
4. "At This Velocity"   2:58
5. "We Will Overcome"   3:39
6. "Arc-Lamps, Signal Flares, a Shower of White (The Light)"   2:32
7. "Running from the Rain"   4:00
8. "Telegraph Avenue Kiss"   3:35
9. "The Lovesong Writer"   5:18
10. "Into the Blinding Light"   3:48
11. "Autumn Leaves Revisited"   6:56
Total length:
 45:56

Personnel

Thursday
Additional musicians
Artwork
  • Louis Marino – Art direction, illustration, design
  • Ken Schless – Photography
Production
  • Dave Fridmann – Producer, recording, mixing, engineering
  • Tom Coyne – Mastering
  • Tim Gilles – Pre-production
  • Melissa Cross – Vocal coach

Charts

Album
Chart (2006) Peak
position
UK Albums Chart 112
US Billboard 200 20

References

External links

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