Thulian

After the brevity and looseness of ‘Limerick,’ ‘Thulian’ arrives like a deep breath. A waltz-time blues instrumental in a minor key, it moves at a slow, measured pace that gives the lead guitar room to breathe, and PCBender uses every inch of it. The phrasing here is the story: fluid bends that resolve just late enough to sting, answered by a rhythm section that stays tight without crowding. It has the same unhurried confidence you hear on early Allman Brothers instrumentals, that sense that nobody is rushing because nobody needs to. The emotional weight here is the deepest the album reaches, and it lands all the harder for coming after ‘Limerick’s’ easy swing. At under three minutes it earns its keep and leaves you wanting another pass, which is exactly the right condition to be in heading into the album’s final stretch.