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Now We Can See Image
Metascore
79

Generally favorable reviews - based on 24 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.3

Universal acclaim- based on 11 Ratings

  • Summary: The band's first album on the Kill Rock Stars label was produced by John Congleton.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 20 out of 24
  2. Negative: 0 out of 24
  1. Now We Can See is very much a record about vision, death, disease, perspective, and, er, turning into a fish (?) but its great expressive anchor is the elated desperation that gives punk both its wickedness and its promise.
  2. Now We Can See might not be fist-clenching Thermals fans’ first choice, but it shows there’s way, way more to the band than fist pumping yellers. They’re built for the long haul.
  3. Indeed, as their debut for Kills Rocks Stars, Now We Can See is an album fit to carry the torch in 2009 for one of the underground’s most fearlessly exciting labels.
  4. While there's nothing here quite as thrilling as 'A Pillar of Salt,' the standout from their last album, it's impossible to deny the adrenaline rush of 'I Called Out Your Name' or the title track.
  5. Now We Can See is bursting with clear-headed explorations of the ways that fear and neuroses hold us back from truly living, winkingly clinical examinations of the rote machinations that consume our lives, and tales of the savagery at the basis of modern existence.
  6. 70
    On their fourth record, the tempos are slower, the guitars thick and meaty, the rants kinda melodic, the thoughts impressionistic.
  7. It is in reality a bit boring, a bit generic, and a bit aggravating.

See all 24 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 5
  3. Negative: 0 out of 5
  1. ZachB
    Apr 9, 2009
    10
    Best record of the year so far. Now we can see is a collection of ecstatic moments that never falters for a moment.
  2. Marc
    Apr 10, 2009
    10
    The Thermals are my favorite band, and this is their best, and most fully realized album.
  3. DwightH
    Apr 9, 2009
    9
    I can't seem to stop playing this. Just fantastic.
  4. AndyK.
    Apr 15, 2009
    8
    Right now it's an 8. At first I thought it was a worse album than The Blood, etc., but after taking a few more listens it's Right now it's an 8. At first I thought it was a worse album than The Blood, etc., but after taking a few more listens it's actually quite good! It's just a bit less aggressive and raw than the last one, but the songs become catchy. Favorite right now is the first song When I Died, which has some great guitar in it. The other songs have grown over time as well. Solid album. Better than their earlier stuff. Collapse
  5. Jon
    Jun 8, 2009
    8
    This is a very solid album. I can listen to it all the way through and aren't so quick to pull it out when it starts to repeat, and This is a very solid album. I can listen to it all the way through and aren't so quick to pull it out when it starts to repeat, and there's something to say for that. Many of the songs are very similar, but that formula seems to work well. I'm not that familiar with their earlier stuff, but this is pretty good. The lead singer reminds me of CAKE, but set in front of a indie/brit punk sound, if that makes sense. I would recommend. Expand