Let's Bottle Bohemia

Many marveled at the mythical, sun-dappled vision of California on the Thrills’ 2002 debut simply because it was coming from five Irishmen. The band’s Left Coast fetish is less pronounced on Let’s Bottle Bohemia, but they’re hardly shy about wearing their Americanisms on their collective sleeve. Whether swirling cheesy strings behind the discofied “Whatever Happened to Corey Haim?” or bouncing along to the country-pop confection “Faded Beauty Queens,” the Thrills inject their tunes with a grandeur that’s nothing if not American. “The streets aren’t paved with gold,” frontman Conor Deasy admits on “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know,” amid the sort of sunny guitar leads, eager piano builds, and dreamy Beach Boys’ coos that suggest the cliché is something of a revelation. Yes, the Thrills still idealize America in a way not all that different from what another hopeful Irish band did on records like The Joshua Tree and Rattle and Hum. But if this country can’t be a vessel for the romantic, soon-to-be-crushed dreams of hopeful foreigners, what good are we then?