Drifting Thoughts

posted in: Artist Features • Rock

If nautical-themed rock (naut-rock?) sets your heart sailing, then you’ll want to chart a course to Seattle indie rockers The Thoughts. Singer Ian Williams is the proprietor of a haunting Yorkeian falsetto. Like the Radiohead frontman, his voice climbs up and down scales searchingly, looking for quarter from turbulent sea of emotion. On Constellations a violin, acoustic guitar and rolling percussion (delivered by Katie Mosehauer, Williams, and Jon Horwath respectively) create a moody sort of romanticism for Williams to meader through vocally. It’s the same poetic, whimsical and salty storytelling found in Decemberists and Neutral Milk Hotel. The sea is made of tears that fall from galaxies, Williams sings, high and lonely. Moving from water to air, the melancholic Northern Lights, slowly builds an unlikely symphony of electric guitar distortion, a creeping violin, plucked strings and drums. Maybe the instruments are strange shipmates, but quirkiness of it all buoys the music and makes it irresistibly charming.