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Just get away! has the potential of being the most enticing and potentially out-of-reach phrase ever coined. From travel commercials to Go-Go’s songs, getting out of here (wherever here may be) sticks in the average person’s head as a tantalizing idea — only to be grabbed after we’ve paid the electrical bill. Eh, we think as we pass the billboard advertising cheap flights to Cancun, maybe next year. But by the time next year/month/week rolls around, we’ve given up on even the thought of getting away.
Belfast indie pop duo Tuskany (stylized “TUSKANY”) are here to ask us why in their new single “Thursday,” which Atwood has the pleasure of premiering today. Or, more appropriately, Tuskany asks us why not — as “Thursday”’s focus is mainly on seizing that impulse to get away. Owen from Tuskany explains that “‘Thursday’ is about feeling discontent with day to day life and wanting to disappear to a different country to start fresh. We wanted to make a pumping summery sounding song to portray the image of driving off in a hot country.”
Listen: “Thursday” – TUSKANY
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Less about escapism and more about the need to get off the grid for awhile, “Thursday” does just that. In a flurry of synth reminiscent of the best of 80’s pop, Tuskany mourns the start of “nothing but another Thursday.” A completely ordinary, run-of-the-mill, in-between day stretches out before both Tuskany and their listeners. Caught in the grind of daily life, the same empty promises of maybe next week/month/year don’t fool anyone — the line “But we’re never ever gonna get away” ringing truer than ever at the end of summer. As they reach the chorus, Tuskany entertains all the romanticized possibilities of the lives they might be living, if they could just get away:
We could be in Paris, or maybe even Rome
It’s hard to say why we are not
Drive to the coastline, take it day by day
It’s hard to say why we are not
If Thursday is the new Friday, why don’t we take advantage of it? Honestly — if we set aside our well-thought-out budget and our obligations, what’s actually preventing us from running off to somewhere where nobody knows our names or somewhere we can see the ocean?
“Thursday” could be as much about reinvigorating a relationship as it is escaping daily life. Why is it that only new relationships seem to give us that feeling of invincibility that makes dodging off somewhere foreign on a weekday sound not only feasible, but absolutely worth it? At the start of something new, possibilities and magic aren’t uncommon — even on a Thursday. So why let something good fade, Tuskany asks. Why let a relationship become a mundane part of that everyday routine? All that’s needed to get out of a rut — whether it’s related to a relationship or the too-comfortable routine of day-to-day life in general — could truly be “a change of pace.”
With “Thursday,” Tuskany boldly confronts our desk-job daydreams and challenges us to make them a reality. Like a more polite, more refined, and synth-laden version of the sentiment behind Shia LaBeouf telling us to “just do it,” Tuskany proposes that we leave the stagnant day-to-day routine behind for awhile. We’ll all be better off for it.
