Excuse them for the "just happy to be here" attitude, but Detroit's Thunderbirds Are Now! are probably still floored by their own overachievement on 2005 sleeper album Justamoustache. All the elements TAN! bungled on previous releases-- the stop-start rhythms, new wave synth hooks, Les Savy Fav lite riffs-- crystallized on the band's sophomore album, creating the perfect storm of colorful, cartoonish post-punk and serving up a helping of crow to the many critics who thought sloppy debut Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief rang like a death knell for the group's career.
Friendly vindication enjoyed, TAN!'s third album, Make History, finds the band resting too comfortably on its laurels, or perhaps just flat-out unsure of a following act. In any event, it lacks the visceral intensity that made Justamoustache such an appealing bandwagon to jump on. That said, they haven't exactly backslid into the post-punk malfeasance of their early years. In fact, if anything, Make History presents TAN! at their most disciplined, more willing to play by conventional rock rules than ever. Take opener "Panthers in Crime", which deliberates on psychedelic acoustic guitar plucking for over a minute, gorging the track's grandeur to classic rock album opener standards. Sure, the hooks don't exactly come rapid-fire anymore, exploding like napalm on impact, but they're still there.
Then there's lead singer Ryan Allen; dude sounded like a lady on previous releases, but here he keeps the hyperventilation shrieks to a minimum. Not only does Allen now breathe between lyrics, his vocals sound their huskiest to date. "We Win (Ha Ha)" jerks over a similar rhythm to "198090 (Aquatic Cupid's)", though Allen nosedives from that song's vocal stratosphere, uttering the chorus line "We've heard this one before" with ennui. Similarly, Allen's guitar and Scott Allen's normally blistering synth lines feel restrained. Ryan's riffing opts for heartier power-chord progressions over the prickly, calculated snipes he took before, and Scott seems relegated almost exclusively to beefing up texture and atmosphere. Although he flaunts some searing synth on "Why We War", it's only a nod to previous works like "Eat This City" or "198090" where keyboards galvanized the entire song.
The new meat and potatoes approach, love it or lump it, does yield some pleasant surprises on occasion. "The Veil Comes Down" sounds like Foo Fighters in a perfect world, not to mention a chorus that smacks of Nirvana's angular power-chord pop. "Shake Them Awake" is wound as tight as any previous material, hot enough to burn out under the two-and-a-half minute mark. Unfortunately, though, these breakneck flashes are just that here-- flashes. Call it sadistic, but like early Trail of Dead, TAN! moves and shakes best when the band itself teeters on the edge of self-destructing. Slowed down and pored over on Make History, TAN! still boasts nifty hooks and ideas, it's just a little too easy to chew.
