Ok, this month’s music album review is a little different, as I’m instead reviewing a Spotify channel/band- Sydney’s very own Thirsty Merc! Woohoo, yeah! Woohoo, yeah!
Thirsty Merc is a pop-rock band, which in my own opinion has not received and/or reached the dizzying heights of popularity which I personally believe that they deserve. When you listen to their Spotify channel, you have to conclude that they simply play really really good stuff! But where as Aussie bands like ‘Five Seconds of Summer’ are global phenomenon’s, and elder statesmen bands like ‘The Living End’ are known as legends of the Australian grunge scene – oddly Thirsty Merc had only achieved the highest peak of No. 4 on the ARIA Album charts (after 15 years of performing and producing studio albums), and presently they’re only performing at suburban pubs and RSL clubs? Like, what the?
The band’s front man/lead singer is amazing! Rai Thistlethwayte not only has a voice which can rival the best rockers Australia has ever produced, but he also looks the part with his fro! The rest of the Thirsty Merc band is made up of a pair of guitars, bass guitar and drums (Rai’s talents contribute to one of those guitars, and he also plays the keys). I’d describe their music as being Groovy, which gets your body movin’; and if there is any knock against their music, is that their music is a bit too commercial for a rock band and most themes of their songs are about love and break-ups- which I guess young dudes aren’t exactly moshing to. And oddly at their peak, female fans weren’t flocking to them either – unlike other boy-bands who also sung of love i.e. the Beatles. In the end the boys who make up the Thirsty Merc band are just country-boyz who are just trying to make it in the big smoke!
Thirsty Merc’s best known hits have been from their first studio album, self-titled ‘Thirsty Merc’ (2004)- ‘Emancipate Myself’, ‘Someday, Someday’, and ‘In the Summer Time’; their second studio album ‘Slideshow’ (2007) was their most successful with hit single ’20 Good Reasons’ reaching no. 4 on the 2007 ARIA charts, and other notable tracks from that album were ‘Those Eyes’ and ‘The Hard Way’; and their third studio album ‘Mousetrap Heart’ (2010) was best known for the title track ‘Mousetrap Heart’. The latest album release ‘Shifting Gears’ (2015) was slipped into the public sphere with little fanfare, but in my opinion it’s just as good as their three previous albums!
So if you’re ever lost for something to listen to, just ask your smart speaker to play ‘Thirsty Merc’ on Spotify! And be ready to be entertained for hours on end! I’ve honestly only been playing their channel all week long! And my all-time favourite song of theirs since it was first released is ’20 Good Reasons’! And a moment in life which has stuck with me for years and years, was seeing them perform live as a supporting act at the Opera House forecourt; it was raining and I was getting drenched but I didn’t care as Rai’s performance of ‘Emancipate Myself’ had me mesmerised! Go do it! Treat your ears! Check-out Thirsty Merc! You won’t regret it!
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