Ending this generation’s greatest will they/won’t they debate once and for all, Thou and The Body have finally announced they’re going to tie the knot in the form of a full-length collaborative LP called You, Whom I Have Always Hated. I sure do hope that’s just an album title and not how the bands talk to one another because if it is, from personal experience, they might be in for a bit of a bumpy ride once the honeymoon is over, especially in light of the fact that during the courtship phase of their relationship they put out an EP together called Released from Love. Released?! Honey, we’re trying to lock that shit down, if you know what I mean. Anyhow, the new full-length is out January 27, and in addition to a cover of Nine Inch Nails’ “Terrible Lie,” it features five brand new songs that the bands wrote together, and then honed over this summer’s collaborative tour. The digital and CD versions of the release also include Released by Love, which appears for the very first time in non-vinyl form.
Sure, sure, you might be thinking to yourself, “Hasn’t The Body done quite a bit of dating around with the likes of The Haxan Cloak and Sandworm this year? What makes you think this one is the one?” Call it a feeling, I don’t know. Maybe it’s because of this totally adorable tour documentary I watched over on the Thrill Jockey Facebook page in which, yes, the bands travel around to crush mere humans with waves of sound. But in between, they really bond on a deep level, you know?
Though the bands have got distinctive sounds and backgrounds, You, Whom I Have Always Hated reportedly brings their sounds together, letting the strengths of each shine like the low-hanging sun on a planet darkened by “alienation, melancholy, and despair” winding the whole affair up into something that sounds like, “a twilight dungeon crawl exploring the winding, ruined halls of Mad King Duro’s Castle, best friends at your side, enemies crushed beneath your heels, mysteries solved, and treasures found.” Sounds an awful lot like Wednesday, if you ask me! Pre-order the album from Thrill Jockey here; if you’re quick you might grab one of the 300 limited edition white LPs available exclusively through Thrill Jockey mail order. Call me a romantic, but I can’t wait to watch this collaboration flower into something truly beautiful and beset by darkness on all sides!
You, Whom I Have Always Hated tracklist:
01. Her Strongholds Unvanquishable
02. The Devils of Trust Steal the Souls of the Free
03. Terrible Lie
04. Beyond the Realms of Dream, That Fleeting Shade Under the Corpus of
Vanity
05. He Returns to the Place of His Iniquity
06. Lurking Fear
Released from Love tracklist (included in the digital/CD edition):
01. The Wheel Weaves as the Wheel Wills
02. Manifest Alchemy
03. In Meetings Hearts Beat Closer
04. Coward
• The Body: https://www.facebook.com/pages/the-body/334047229514
• Thou: http://noladiy.org/thou
• Thrill Jockey: http://thrilljockey.com