CD review

Thinker
‘Crippled by the Truth’

With a name like Thinker, you almost have to expect the band to deliver some deep thoughts and this up-and-coming Huntington Beach, Calif., quartet comes through on their five-song debut EP. Vocalist/guitarist Steve Prouse possesses a strong baritone voice that gives gravity to phrases such as “Maybe science has no answers, maybe knowledge is a fraud” on “Enemy,” the disc’s lead track. Meanwhile the rest of the band — guitarist Chris Slama and longtime Tempe music scene veterans Mike Hannah on bass and Corey Manske on drums — match the singer's pipes with a great sense of dynamics and powerful, driving rock.

Even when Prouse goes off the lyrical deep end (“The difficult extremes that symbolized us/Different and the same/Were lost within the tides, as I receded/The lack of which I’ve come to bleed right now,” from “Welcome to Your Life”), there’s a great chorus to throw both him and the song a lifeline. To their credit, Thinker never dumbs their music down and it’s always better to try too hard than not try hard enough. A-

— by Thomas Bond, Get Out