I've had time to think about this for approximately fifty-one days now, and I think I'm ready to finally say this as absolute fact: The Thermals' The Body, The Blood, The Machine was the best record of 2006. Boom. Phew, it feels good to get that off my concave chest.

After a few weeks of silence, I recently spun this album again in my kitchen as I spun around the liquid chocolate in my milk. And I found myself singing along to every song (it was a very large glass of chocolate milk) with a rarely exhibited trait for me: glee.

Who would have thought a catchy pop-punk concept album about the hypocrisy of religion (i.e. evangelical Christianity) could make one tap their feet and bop their head?

I mean, one doesn't naturally think of the Old Testament as "rock-out material." But when Hutch Harris begins with a wail out about Noah, you just want to do air-guitar accompaniment to the impending forty-day flood that destroys the earth (that's how the dinosaurs died, don't you know). By the time Harris touches off on the evil sins of the flesh, we are beyond hooked. We're converted.

God, I love this band.

The Thermals play The Echo, on Friday, April 6th.