Waiting is the debutstudio album by American rock band Thursday. The album was produced by Sal Villanueva and released on Eyeball Records in 1999. The photography throughout the album's artwork, with the exception of live shots, was done by Tom Keeley's uncle, Dennis Keeley. This was the band's only album recorded with rhythm guitarist Bill Henderson, who would be replaced by Steve Pedulla in 2000.
Background
With the exception of "Introduction" and "Where the Circle Ends", Waiting was recorded at Big Blue Meenie studio in Jersey City, New Jersey in spring 1999. Sal Villanueva acted as producer for the sessions. Jason Kantor engineered the recordings, while Tim Gilles mastered them at Surgical Sound. "Introduction" and "Where the Circle Ends" were recorded by Charles Newman at Mother West Studios. The two tracks were mastered by Alan Douches at West West Side Music. A few additional musicians contributed to the recordings: Frank, Britta, Mike and Kelly.
Songs
The song "Porcelain" is a tribute and call to action regarding suicide. Kevin, best friend to Geoff Rickly, had committed suicide soon after moving to San Francisco while suffering from Schizophrenia. At the time of his suicide, there wasn't a toll-free suicide hotline available in San Francisco that Kevin was aware of and he was unable to seek counseling at the time of his death. The song "Ian Curtis" was named after late lead singer of the UK group Joy Division. Another victim of suicide, Curtis hanged himself in his Macclesfield home in 1980. The song contains many Joy Division song references, most notably "Love Will Tear Us Apart". The song "Dying in New Brunswick" was written by Geoff Rickly about his girlfriend who moved to New Brunswick and was raped while she was there. The lyrics are about how he hated the city for what happened and how he felt like he was dying whenever he was there.
Release
In July 1999, while on tour the group released 1999 Summer Tour EP, an EP that featured demos and unmastered songs that would feature on Waiting. Waiting was released through Eyeball Records in November. The cover was taken by Dennis Keeley.
2015 reissue
To commemorate the 15th anniversary of Thursday's debut albumWaiting, Geoff Rickly's label Collect Records released a remastered version of the album on March 24, 2015. The updated version features updated artwork and was released in a package containing the album on CD and 180 gram 12" LP with a bonus 7" containing demos of "This Side of Brightness" and "Dying in New Brunswick," in addition to the track "Mass as Shadows," which previously appeared on Thursday's 1999 tour EP. To promote the reissue, Collect Records released a lyric video for the track "Where the Circle Ends". However, neither the original or the remaster are on Spotify.
