Sore Thumb, released in October of 2011 by We Were Promised Jetpacks on their second studio album, In The Pit of the Stomach. In a nutshell, it is, a more than five-minute song with only four lines of lyrics and the power of an atomic bomb explosion wedged in between hypnotizing repetitive melody.
The mostly instrumental song starts with rolling bass chords, repeating, and after, the guitar follows with a signal like a riff, echoing the bass chords with the same root notes but up quite a few octaves and with a different rhythm. This few seconds of a duet sets the stage for the distant drums now beginning to faintly progress, mostly cymbals, until the drums to kick in full on with a gentle yet driving, and progressive beat. Following this, a dis-chordal guitar fades in without the listener realizing that it's there. This continues for a good portion of the song, with a constant crescendo with a few releases into a calm valley in the dynamics. The swelling and descending add to the lush sound and give the song life. Up and down and back up, the song almost feels fluid, rolling like a river, or crashing waves. On the final quiet valley before the lyrical part, all but the ever-present flowing bass fades out or stops completely, repeating its riff a few times while the rest of the band is diminished to nothing. Only for the raw, far off vocals of the Scottish singer to come through, with a short section of lyrics. With a yearning voice, he sings, "Retrace all of my steps, which helps when I start to forget. / You said that to me, like the stories that thoughts never see. / I pray my whole day, to see what disasters we lived, I could call out her name, and then wait / Let's see what comes crawling back, and I recover" What the writers intention is by these lyrics is completely unbeknownst to me, but his tone of voice makes me think of memories of a lost time. After the sustained "recover" all of the band kicks back in with the above-mentioned power of an atomic bomb explosion. As all of the instruments come back in, the swelling continues with slightly different distortion and a wavering new riff in the guitars, very climactic and powerful. After the emphasis has been put on this everything begins to fade slowly, like the first major valley. Melodies falling off one by one, until the bass and guitar duet, in the beginning, has a reprise, and finally, the ever-present bass is all that remains, the song coming into a full circle, a cycle of emotion.
The moving and flowing part of the song makes me contemplate my life, my past, and my future and I just forget about the rest of the world. In those instances of contemplation, however, I find an internal conflict in the mood of the song, a sense of being torn. A certain line leads me to feel like my, early memories are going away, "Retrace all of my steps/ which helps when I start to forget, she said that to me...", bringing memories of how things used to be and you're sad but you still fight through it, while somehow still finding power. The volume dynamics of the loud and quiet remind me of the crashing of waves on the beach. Of peaks and troughs, thunder and lightning, and the fluid-like powerful movement, of the soundscape edging away on emotions just like the rocks, the waves are pounding into eroding it to the core. The song is the soundtrack to a battle, a swaying fight of sides and the introduction into a new phase of life, while never forgetting the old memories that make you who you are.
