Customer Reviews

Thorns

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

There's a prophetic line at the start of the second track, "I Can't Remember": "I'm not gonna lie to you, something is missing." Despite the fact that it boasts the work of three moderately successful solo artists, including Pete Droge, Shawn Mullins, and Matthew Sweet (whose other work I really enjoy--check out In Reverse), The Thorns comes up short. Instead of any driving rhythms or compelling lyrics, the thirteen songs here consist mostly of three-part harmony and lyrics that sound like they were sanitized during the process of three songwriters tweaking them. The results are bland and inoffensive, certainly not as good as fans had every right to expect from these three. There's a reason people are selling used copies on the cheap.

This is one dull disc. I'm a fan of mellow music, but hearing these three guys all singing at the same time on every song made me instantly think of CSN&Y, a band I strongly dislike. I expected a lot more from these guys. This one's a turd.

For some reason or another, Matthew Sweet, Pete Droge and Shawn Mullins decided to form the supergroup known as The Thorns. Maybe they realized how many people have been buying their respective solo albums lately? But I'm not sure many people have this album either, and it isn't hard to understand why.

The main problem with this album is that it doesn't really give either member a chance to shine on his own. All three of them are pretty much singing in unison throughout the whole album, and it's usually at the same tone. Also, almost every song ends the same way AND are the same length (except for maybe "Among the Living"), making them sound like carbon copies of each other.

Because of all this, it's hard to enjoy otherwise decent songs like "I Can't Remember" or "Now I Know". But the title track, self-titled song, whatever ("Thorns"), is ridiculous and should have stayed in the studio. This album is okay to play in the background, but that's about it.

Anthony Rupert

good album; songs are poetry and performed well; well worth the twelve bucks to buy the album; personal favorite song: i set the world on fire

I have been a long time Matthew Sweet fan, his CD Girlfriend is one of my all time favorites, so when I saw The Thorns CD at Best Buy for $9.99, I said "why not?" and picked it up.

The initial listen revealed pleasant and harmonic songs, not easy listening, per se, but easy enough to pop in to the car stereo and go for a drive and not feel the need to turn the music down to talk to people. It was pleasant and I want to say unobtrusive, which is not a bad thing at all.

I put the cd away for a while and recently returned to it, and I swear it's like an entirely new CD, the songs I was comofrtable listening to before have now taken on depth and weight, and really to prove to be great music. After initially listening to them, and then not listening to them for a few months, I can't forgive that lapse! If you are a fan of any of these guys, or looking for the latter day Crosby Stills & Nash, give the Thorns a try, you won't be disappointed!

Finally a new group ( Well, seasoned pros playing together )that can ALL sing and Harmonies that bring back CSN and others we all enjoyed. Talent abounds here on this CD and GREAT songs to enjoy for many of years. These guys are good and hopefully another CD is in their future. Music again needs to become the tunes you keep humming in your head all day. Individual songs, not the same old style that sounds the same as the others. We want the melodies and beautiful harmonies that were once performed by the best groups of all time. Buy this CD if you like songs to sing along with again.

Ahh, HERE'S where everyone's reviews are hiding! <grin> Good to see the large numbers of mostly positive reviews here, although I'm a bit put off by the numbers of people dissing "Dragonfly"...but then, we're all entitled to our opinions. There are classic LP's from the 70's I compared this CD to in my other review, so have a look if you desire. And let's DEFINITELY hope for more music from these guys. If you are fortunate enough to find the Bonus CD version, buy it, by all means...I hope we are blessed with a Thorns Unplugged video at some point in the future.

Hey, it's Christmas Day...if you haven't bought YOURSELF a gift yet, hurry down to your favorite music outlet and treat yourself to The Thorns. Joyeux Noel et Bonne Annee to everyone.

The Thorns began as something of an experiment: three well-established solo artists got together and created a trio in which none would be the band's focal point. There would be no lead singer; instead all three artists would sing nearly all the lines in all the songs. None of the three even wanted to be standing in the middle during a video shoot.

Instead, Shawn Mullins, Matthew Sweet, and Pete Droge would leave the solo spotlight behind and attempt to be (or at least appear) unified in everything. The enhanced CD includes a nice interview with the band wherein they talk about their efforts to share the spotlight evenly. Together the three wrote the songs on this album while staying in a reclusive mountain hideaway. None of the band claims the spotlight or asserts a leadership role. Truly The Thorns seem like three guys who began music for nothing more the love of it, have tasted some success as solo singer-songwriters, and wanted to try something new in an evenly shared endeavor.

The end result is this "debut" album, replete with American roots rock, acoustically based and filled with pleasant melodic tracks and plenty of harmonizing vocals. While the CD tends to meander or even plateau in a few places, these moments only accentuate the general relaxing, moderate, soothing pace and feel of the album. The frequent comparisons of The Thorns to Crosby, Stills, & Nash are understandable, given the sound of the music on this album, but not valid unless this new trio reaches the record of commercial success and sociopolitical influence their predecessors attained.

It's hard not to listen to this disc and believe these guys are just trying to have fun making music, as they love to do, in a somewhat different environment. They claim to have the interpersonal chemistry to sustain the effort, and their voices certainly blend well together. If The Thorns are able to keep it up, we can expect more great music from this newly formed band. If not, we can expect to hear more great music from Mullins, Sweet, and Droge as individual solo artists. Either way these guys are at the top of their game, and this album represents a unique achievement for each of them in their musical careers.

A great album, the like of which are rare these days. Hard to tell who might have influenced them more CSN&Y or Petty, or maybe the Eagles, but really who cares, simply put it on and sit back and enjoy real music again.

As a huge Shawn Mullins fan who thinks anything he puts out is more than great, I heard about the Thorns and bought it.I liked it immediately, it did remind me of C/S/N and America, but the Thorns have their own flavor, and bravo to them for bringing back this sound, I'm really happy with the CD and look forward to more music they put out. There is a couple songs that were ok and that was why I only gave 4 stars. But it's a great addition to your music collection for a fresh take on a collaboration of 3 guys makin' a great sound.