2008, Thrill Jockey

Terrible Two by Thank You grabs the listener—but not gently: by the shirt collar.

At five songs and a cumulative 35 minutes, Terrible Two is a mishmash of noise, intense drumming, strange interludes, and howling vocals. It’s a prickly kind of record that is at times almost religious (title track) but rarely harmonious (any given track).

It’s pretty clear that the band members are all accomplished musicians, which benefits Terrible Two in ways that a garageful of teenage noisemakers wouldn’t realize. Terrible Two is more than that, but even after a few listens, it’s hard to tell just how much more, or what, exactly, it’s made of.

It would be easy to judge this Baltimore trio as mere noise, but one gets the sense that like Picasso, they can do abstract and they can do realistic, and they’ve simply chosen abstract.

B+