Short Wave on a Cold Day

Thought Industry | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 11, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Metal Blade
• ASIN: B00005O6BU
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #430,576 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Satan in the Gift Shop

2. I'm Lonely (An Grooving Like Cancer)

3. The Waitress in the Bar Orbiting Io

4. Burning Coal with Margaret

5. Tall Ships on the Rocks

6. Kiss Judy Fly

7. The Measure of Our Miles

8. Lovers in Flames

9. A Week and Seven Days

10. Particle Hustler

11. Longfellow

12. Hello, Murder

13. So Says Ike

14. Beautiful Coma

15. Interstellar Fix, 2056

16. Alien and Pure

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mellow like Black Umbrella, but much more lush, September 25, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Short Wave on a Cold Day (Audio CD)

Stylistically, this album falls somewhere between Outer Space Is Just A Martini Away and Black Umbrella, with heavy leanings toward the Black Umbrella end of the spectrum. If you are a Black Umbrella fan, or a fan of any of the mellow and/or acoustic material on Recruited To Do Good Deeds For The Devil, then you'll love Short Wave On A Cold Day. If Songs For Insects and Mods Carve The Pig are your favorite Thought Industry albums, then you'll probably be disappointed. In other words, Short Wave On A Cold Day cannot be called "heavy" in any sense of the word. Thought Industry's days of playing chaotic, progressive art metal seem to be long over, however, Short Wave still manages to showcase the signature Thought Industry songwriting style. Vocalist and founding member (and sole original member) Brent Oberlin has put together a new line up for this album, and they are all very capable musicians. Numerous tracks on the album are in fact written by the new members: gutiarist Mike Roche, keyboardist/guitarist Jeff Borkowski, drummer Cam Taylor and bassist Mark Baldwin. Oberlin's lyrics, both in format and content, have returned to the pre-Black Umbrella style, presented almost as a stream-of-consciousness time/space travelogue. The music here is much more lush than the stripped down sounds on Black Umbrella, employing thick layers of synthesizers and rich multi-part vocal harmonies. For me, stand out tracks include Satan In The Gift Shop, Lovers In Flames, Alien and Pure and The Waitress in the Bar Orbiting Io.

5.0 out of 5 stars Second consecutive masterwork, March 8, 2006

By 

E. Miller - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Short Wave on a Cold Day (Audio CD)

Classic mixture of Black Umbrella pop-rock introspection with Radiohead, Flaming Lips and Rush-style prog leanings. Essential for anyone who enjoyed all of Thought Industry's previous albums including Black Umbrella enough to stay onboard once they dropped the metal element (a process that really started way back on Outer Space anyway). Black Umbrella might have had more songs that jumped out at you on first listen... this is more of a "big acheivement from beginning to end" type album, 16 great songs, 70+minutes. Ignore at your own risk if you're already an avid listener of earlier TI.

5.0 out of 5 stars Lush progressive alt-rock from the masters of tech-metal, September 9, 2004

By 

Robert Pontzer (State College, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Short Wave on a Cold Day (Audio CD)

Thought Industry started off in the early 90's as a bizarre tech-metal band incorporating diverse non-metal influences. Their sound evolved over several releases and finally culminated on this 2001 release, their swansong, as a potent blend of alt-rock, indie, prog and a certain lingering intangible metal aesthetic. "Short Wave on a Cold Day" is a lush, cerebral, and diverse offering that is now quite hard to find. Their label, Metal Blade, apparently did not know how to market music like this and promptly deleted the album from their catalogue within a year of its release. It's a tragedy, because this album should have been huge. The band is now inactive, but has left us with a legacy of challenging and forward-thinking music.

"Short Wave on a Cold Day" is an album that should appeal to a broad cross-section of music afficianados. It's firmly within the alt-rock/indie vein; but it also has a certain metal aesthetic lingering that should appeal to the more open-minded fans of that genre. I think it's in the instrumental prowess displayed on this disc.

This album has a very cohesive sound and a consistancy of material throughout. The main adjective that comes to mind is "lush". It's one of those dreamy, beautiful albums that can really take you on a journey. Each song has a hook, yet is sufficiently challenging to prevent mass accessibility. It's truly an album you can sink your teeth into, and discover new layers of aural bliss upon each listen.

The songs are deceptively complex and display an instrumental proficiency uncommon to this type of music. The vocalist has a pleasantly light voice and is not shy about using falsetto. The guitar is quite textural, the bass quite thick and expansive, the drums providing shimmering cymbalscapes, and a myriad of electronics and keyboards softening the edges and creating dense layers of cloudmusic that goes on for miles. The lyrics are some sort of esoteric poetry. I feel watery, wintry, and airy when I listen to this album. It's a musical experience like no other.

Highlights include the oceanic, frosty "Tall Ships on the Rocks"; the acoustic lament of "Lovers in Flames" and the curiously dark "Hello, Murder".

Each Thought Industry album is drastically different, but each is fantastic. I give the highest recommendation to their entire catalogue.