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The Organ: Thieves [Album Review]

The Organ

Very few groups can consider themselves a true girl group, especially if their numbers are greater than three, let alone four. But The Organ boasts five. After a very well-received debut release in Grab That Gun, the ladies of The Organ sadly parted ways. Luck for us, they decided to patch things up long enough to finish recording their followup EP, Thieves — or else, at least, treat us with a posthumous little gift.

The EP features previously unreleased and rare material. While Wikipedia will quote it as simply unreleased, “Let The Bells Ring” saw the light previously as a limited pressing 7″ single. As an EP, Thieves holds together quite a bit more than your typical collection of unreleased material — that being Thieves gives the impression that all the songs were recorded and mixed together.

And they very well could have been; with The Organ’s quite limited existence and minuscule amount of previously released material, one would not necessarily be surprised if Thieves was merely a collection of six Grab That Gun B-sides.

In my review of Let The Bells Ring, I noted how the songwriting and lyrical styling of The Organ drew similarities to The Smiths, were the epic Morrissey-fronted band to instead be comprised of five women. Again, “Let The Bells Ring” is a major high point on the album — though upon closer listen, this may be an alternate version from what was released on the single.

Katie Sketch is the woman behind the mystically deep and dark voice, and she comes across much like Morrissey did in his early days with The Smiths. At the most rudimentary level, a vast power is discernible each moment Sketch opens her mouth to sing. In fact, calling it singing is almost a disgrace to what Sketch is doing — as, much more than your typical musician, she is merely reciting the most beautiful poetry, belted out melodically in an echo-y cavernous room.

Those who were devastated in The Organ’s demise can relish in six outstanding tunes, none of which stand out as much as “Memorize The City” or “Brother” or even “Steven Smith”, but that can easily match the strength behind anything else off Grab That Gun.

Thieves by The Organ

Mint Records [CDEP, 2008]

1. Even In The Night
2. Oh What A Feeling
3. Let The Bells Ring
4. Fire In The Ocean
5. Can You Tell Me One Thing
6. Don’t Be Angry

3 thoughts on “The Organ: Thieves [Album Review]”

  1. For the record, the version of Let The Bells Ring on Thieves is a different version than the one previously released on vinyl. There are similarities, but definitely different recordings. All the songs on Thieves were recorded together.

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