Thunder And Consolation

New Model Army

1989

3.12

Rating

137

Votes

Distribution

Rock Post Punk

User Submitted Album

Album Summary

Thunder and Consolation is the fourth studio album by English rock band New Model Army, released on 15 March 1989 by EMI Records. The album stands as a landmark in the New Model Army catalogue, being their most successful album to date and reaching No. 20 in the UK Albums Chart. It also saw the band gaining new musical grounds as they adopted a more folky sound with the assistance of violinist Ed Alleyne-Johnson. It was produced by Tom Dowd and the band. This was also the last studio album on which Jason 'Moose' Harris played bass. He was subsequently replaced by Nelson on the band's next studio album, Impurity (1990). The title of the album was taken from 17th century British Quaker, Edward Burrough, whose collected works, which were posthumously released in 1663, were entitled The Memorable Works of a Son of Thunder and Consolation.

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Jun 29 2025 Author

Far out, this could be a sister album to die Toten Hosen's Ein Kleines Bisschen Horrorschau. That album came out in 1990 so they must have heard this (or there's a mutual third influence). Either way this rules. What a great, unexpected find. Perfect mix of post-punk, slight goth vibes and fantastic melodies. 5/5.

Oct 14 2025 Author

My new favourite old band. Not the first album to try to meld punk and prog (possibly London Calling?), and not the most commercially successful combination of the two (probably American Idiot?). However, it is an album well worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as those two masterpieces, at least in my opinion. A work of genius, by a band I am looking forward to exploring more fully. An example of the reason I started this whole insane project in the first place, and definitely deserving of inclusion in the book - the only question would be what to drop; I have a few thoughts as some of my other reviews make clear. Thank you so much for the suggestion!!

Oct 25 2025 Author

A complete surprise. Fell into a groove that really worked for me and then stayed there. Really enjoyed this one. The people who compared this to The Alarm were dead on. I love The Alarm probably for the same anthemic, group singing potential feeling these songs have.

Nov 13 2025 Author

When the opener first started I thought "this is ok" but then it really kicked into gear and wow what an album. Faves: 125 MPH, The Charge, White Coats

Jul 02 2025 Author

This was a fun mix of rock and rock-adjacent genres, kept me going through despite being above an hour in length. That’s a good sign

Aug 26 2025 Author

Album cover made me think this was going to be 2000s Metalcore or something. Very solid post-punk. The folksy elements make this stand out from the infinite avalanche of dross that were the original list's post-punk entries.

Sep 05 2025 Author

I’m pretty sure I had this on cassette tape given to me by an Aunt

Sep 17 2025 Author

September 23, 2025 HL: "I Love the World", "Green and Grey", "Vagabonds", "Archway Towers" très goth, très cool Something that kind of distracted me from the overall experience was the name recognition of Alleyne-Johnson, the violinist featured on this record. I found him in a random YouTube video years ago, where he was improvising over numerous FX pedals in the black-and-white town of Chester, UK. I actually made a point of going to Chester while in the UK, mainly because of how it looked in the background of this random violin video. I bought an Ed Alleyne-Johnson song on iTunes ("Orange") before I ever had a job. 99 cents well spent. Anyway, do I think he positively contributed to the sound of Thunder and Consolation? Well, yes

Aug 27 2025 Author

Good post-punk I hadn’t heard of before

Jun 29 2025 Author

Rating: 9/10 Best songs: I love the world, Green and gray, The ballad of Bodmin Pill, Family, Vagabonds, The charge, White coats

Jul 02 2025 Author

I really liked this! Great album!

Nov 13 2025 Author

Oh yeah, this was great! I've had a "best of" compilation of theirs in my library for ages, obtained when absorbing a friend's music collection in the early 00s, but I don't think I've actually listened to it, just heard the odd track on shuffle here and there over the years. It's pretty far from the post-punk template - more alt rock, with some gothy bits. Very much my jam. If the original list had had sane limits on how many times an artist can appear on it and gone for breadth rather than depth, this should definitely have been on there... Fave tracks - "I Love the World" is a great opener, and I'm surprised at myself for liking a song with that sentiment, heh. 😏 I dig "The Charge" and "The Mermaid Song" for injecting some folkiness. "Archway Towers" and "125 MPH" are bangers.

Jun 30 2025 Author

I remember a friend of mine at school had a New Model Army album back in 1988. He knew a lot about music. So I've waited 37 years to see what they're about. As I said, he knew his stuff.

Jul 02 2025 Author

This was pretty interesting, not what I was expecting. 4 stars.

Oct 25 2025 Author

Quite uncommon album on this list - good rock album from 80s. Not my favourite vocal, but the music stands out among the rezt of rock from the era. Very solid record.

Oct 26 2025 Author

Never heard of them. Really enjoyed this.

Nov 10 2025 Author

An interesting mix of genres that's hard to pin down. I guess post-punk is the closest. I like the lyrics and the variety between songs.

Jun 29 2025 Author

Solid heavy metal, reminiscent of maybe a littlenearlier era, better than average vocals. Didn't really feel like any serious innovation but hey if it ain't broke.

Jul 01 2025 Author

New Model Army has never been one of my favorite bands and this album did not change it. But opinions differ and it contains solid rock songs (Green and Grey, Inheritance, I Love the World ) with a folky flavor. With all bonus tracks the streaming services are offering it's much too long and these tracks (apart from White Coats) are not very strong. So you should skip these.

Jul 02 2025 Author

A classic folky rock style album that went between English and Irish sounding. Overall it was a decent listen and I enjoyed a few songs thoroughly. They seemed to have a few harder rock songs but to me the folkier songs were their best. Overall it was a good middle ground of a band that was between genres and decades of 80s and 90s style. 6.4/10

Jul 02 2025 Author

Nice easy-listening post-punky album

Jul 20 2025 Author

Great energy, thoughtful lyrics. Stylistically this is kind in the same neighborhood as early U2 or The Alarm, solid rock with folk and post punk underpinnings, but a bit heavier. There isn't a ton of musical variety here for such a long album, which made this a bit of a slog in places. It would have benefited from a serious edit, but overall I enjoyed it. Fave Songs: Family Life, Vagabonds, Ballad of Bodmin Pill, Archway Towers

Aug 06 2025 Author

Real nice

Aug 09 2025 Author

A fun and punchy post-punk album with a real folk influence - like a heavier Billy Bragg. I’ve always like New Model Army’s whole vibe and ethos but other than a handful of occasions this was lacking a bit in the tunes department

Jun 30 2025 Author

Victim of its own excess, enjoyed the instrumentals but this LP fell into the usual British tendency to keep running the chorus instead of letting the song end. Cut 20 minutes off this thing and it could be a lean, mean listen, but as it stands the melodic ideas here get beaten to death and the album tends toward slog territory.

Oct 16 2025 Author

Totally beige and annoying and nothing

Jul 04 2025 Author

Yeah. Great UK band. I would have gone for The Ghost of Cain (10/10) but TaC is excellent as well: 9/10 for me - I like it a bit more when they operate in post-punk mode rather than folk-rock. On the other hand: the songs on TaC are very strong of course, and this was the first NMA album that I listened to back in 1990 or so.

Jul 01 2025 Author

Has a very late 80's alt rock vibe in the Big Country, The Alarm, The Church sound. The sounds and energy was enough to have me smiling, most of the songs are fun and easy to approach. Maybe a little schlocky in retrospect (e.g. The Charge), but i had a fun time visiting.

Jul 02 2025 Author

Pretty fun! Singer sounds like Danny Elfman. The album is way too long but it keeps moving and I was never truly board/wishing it were over.

Jul 01 2025 Author

Cool post punk

Jul 01 2025 Author

A lot of talk over rock. It's just fine but I won't listen to it again.

Jul 11 2025 Author

This is the type of thing I would love to have discovered during my teenage years. Now, it's just fun and nothing more.

Jul 12 2025 Author

Good 80’s alt rock album.

Jul 14 2025 Author

Not terrible, but definitely too long.

Jul 17 2025 Author

Late '80s post-punk that feels somewhat far removed from the post-punk of the rest of the decade. The only comparison I can draw is U2 and even that feels superficial. Has some good moments but otherwise doesn't quite leave much of an impression on me. CONTENDER FOR THE LIST: There are other UK post-punk records that I would select before this one.

Jul 17 2025 Author

It's fine but definitely something I've heard similar before. The OG list was full of this kinda stuff where it isn't bad, but not really making any bold choices. My personal rating: 3/5 My rating relative to the list: 3/5 Should this have been included on the original list? No.

Jul 23 2025 Author

This is wholesome, and I find a little bit dull.

Jul 30 2025 Author

UK post-punk again, with some stylings that are giving me some kinda Hungover New Wave flavor. Definitely above average, but not exactly blowing my mind.

Aug 06 2025 Author

This was okay

Aug 27 2025 Author

Meh

Oct 16 2025 Author

I quite liked this. The voice was weirdly familiar, I can't place if it just sounds very similar to someone else.

Jun 30 2025 Author

Barely 2

Jun 30 2025 Author

Suffers from washed out 80s production

Jul 02 2025 Author

Post-punk, folk rock. Aburrido. Un 2.

Jul 30 2025 Author

Obscure, random, British, 80s. Definitely in line with the main list.

Aug 24 2025 Author

There isn't much to Thunder and Consolation, it's very average folksy easy listening rock that exists, but definitely isn't worthy of a must-listen moniker. 2.

Sep 13 2025 Author

I listened to this album over a couple of days so it felt very long and a bit of a chore. The name New Model Army used to scare me but I don’t know why.

Nov 06 2025 Author

2 Stars, but only because the bassist is called “Moose”. Actually, as it goes on, this record ain’t so bad - 3 stars. It’s pretty fucking long, though, and there’s a song that contains a lyric that proudly proclaims “this is the 1980’s”, so maybe back to 2 stars.

Nov 12 2025 Author

Very middle of the road. Sounds like tons of stuff already on this list.

Jul 29 2025 Author

These songs sound like they were made for background tracks on a medieval themed video game.