Since I often think that six years ago was last weekend (not out of nostalgia but from concussions), my memories of the Thumbs are still fresh. The Sick Sick Birds are like the natural progression of The Thumbs, if the Thumbs had been recording since the time of their disbanding, had released three more records, and loosely followed the trajectory of those type of bands that started out real fuckin’ fast, but when they slowed down showed that there were songs buried under the roar the entire time; and that’s what made the listens repeated. (I mean, who knew when Land Speed Record was released that a song like “Everything Falls Apart” was going to come from Hüsker Dü?) Anyhow, the Sick Sick Birds take their time and populate these well-constructed houses of songs and, yeah, it’s mellower, but it sounds like their house from foundation to roof, not a house from the past they’re merely tourists in, scavenging cheap souvenirs from their past.
–todd (Toxic Pop)