It’s the voice that’s the thing. Be it the anguished yawp reaching towards heights that speak to the grimmest of life’s depths, or the feathery swoosh that’s imbued with humanity and yearning, Geoff Rickly is instantly recognisable. You can even hear echoes of it in the scores of facsimile not-quites who’d follow in his influential footsteps in the years since Thursday broke through around the turn of the 21st century. What was once novel and new, however, quickly became so commonplace and copied that the credits due to him and his New Brunswick cohorts have remained somewhat elusive. When the band split in acrimony in 2011, it was such a crushing conclusion to the 14 years that preceded that it would ultimately leave the vocalist hooked on heroin and wondering what his worth was. Along th...
