After the success of their comeback album ‘The Panglossian Momentum’, fans may have feared that Thousand Yard Stare had said everything they needed to. Fortunately, the hunger remains as they return with new single ‘Measures’. It’s part of a run of four singles to be released via their Bandcamp page.
The harder edges of ‘Heimlich Manoeuvre’ and ‘Action Stations’ return on this tale of principles and the struggles to maintain them. The volatile riffs are continually threatening to boil over, the perfect accompaniment as Stephen Barnes outlines the joy in taking a stance and then the tension to hold the line.
‘Measures’ has a great directness, bullish but never throttling. It’s also imbibed with the carefree spirit of ‘Version of Me’. It serves to reawaken their younger angst in the opening stanza:
“It’s the measures that you take to define you / It’s the measures when you tie up loose ends / It’s the measures that you take to align you / It’s the pleasure in the message it sends.”
As the song roars to a close, clutching the early years of the band close to the heart become more joyous with the lyrics “It doesn’t matter how you arrive here / Just be sure that you are here at the end / It doesn’t matter how you arrive here / Take pleasure in the message it sends”. Their sage advice to new generations of punks doubles up as a reassuring to the elders who may have lost their way.
Since the ‘Deep Dreaming /Stargazing’ double EP return, they have not rested on former glories. The hallmarks remain but, the sprinkling of Grandaddy synths and the ferocious wall of sound continue to push Slough band on.
Long may it continue.