While I consider Thrice to be mostly a band of the 00’s (not the 10’s), they still had plenty of quality material spill over into this decade. Prior to their hiatus, 2011’s Major/Minor saw them release one of their heaviest and most pessimistic albums. Kensrue spews hopeless-sounding laments across the course of the experience, such as “We are cowards and thieves, will we never turn to grieve the damage done”, “Our hearts are – they’re so deceitful, sick and filled with lies that lead to death”, or “Never see, never quake with rage at what we have become.” It was a pretty jarring disruption to the Thrice we knew – the one that always kept an eye to the sky for that silver lining.
“Anthology” is one of the few glimpses of light that manages to shine through Major/Minor‘s gray, overtly bleak depiction of humanity. It’s actually important that the album itself is so grim, because without that “Anthology” simply wouldn’t pack the same punch. The guitars, which elsewhere are murky and dense, shift towards towering and resplendent; each deceptively complex riff injected with melody. Kensrue sounds enlightened and clear-minded, as if his journey through Major/Minor saw him come out the other side with – if not answers – then a resolute sense of hope, and the reassurance that everything will indeed turn out okay in the end: “If we hold to our hope, then I know we can weather the storm.” There may not be a moment in Thrice’s discography where he sings something more easy to believe than, “I know that we can see this through.” Forget what this is. It doesn’t matter, because Kensrue sings about its positive outcome with such fervent belief that there’s no disagreeing. We will get there. And the subtle guitar pauses that add weight/emphasis to his declarations are just another stroke of genius. Rarely does a song so profoundly clash with its surrounding aura while managing to still define the album from whence it came. “Anthology” not only defines Major/Minor, but also the very best of latter-day Thrice.
