Barely a year after the last one, we suddenly have another Thunder album, presumably thanks to the pandemic, which has screwed up all sorts of writing, recording and touring schedules. While 2021’s All The Right Noises was written and recorded pre-covid but then delayed, Dopamine was made when everything in the world had already gone pear-shaped – and it shows, particularly in Luke Morley’s lyrics, which often glow with optimism, looking forward to when things will get back to normal. Musically, the band have crafted an ambitious double album, a sprawling but cohesive 16 tracks, exploring what Thunder are and can be, as they veer from typical hard-rocking to more experimental material.
Kicking off in familiar territory, opener The Western Sky celebrates the band’s annual trans-America charity motorbike ride and has an uplifting chorus as expansive as the landscapes it describes. The upbeat we’ll-get-through-it vibe continues on the self-explanatory One Day We’ll Be Free Again, the wide-eyed Across The Nation (‘We’ll drown in a wave of joy across the nation’), the who-dares-wins sentiment of All The Way and the joyful Dancing In The Sunshine.
The strength of any Thunder album, though, is thereally takes off. Given poignant ballad and piano-and-vocals track
