Streetlight Manifesto’s album that debuted in 2013 is a mix of punk and ska music at it’s finest. Previously the alternative ska band produced 3 other albums that all had major success, but none as massive as ‘The Hands That Thieve”.

This album is a mix of emotions from subtle woodwind sections, to blasting forte head banging punk tunes. In this album it starts out with an energetic piece titled, “The Three of Us”, which is a tribute to the original band mates and their ups and downs as a band throughout the last decade prior to 2013. It is filled with a massive horn section and vocals.

The album then takes a turn and turns more to their reggae roots, with a song called Ungrateful that starts with a trumpet solo, that turns into a loud and exciting piece of music that makes one jump out of their seat on the beat. After a long intstrumental intro, the song goes into a screaming energetic piece with a perfect mix of the lead vocalist, Tomas Kalnoky, and the instrumental section.

The rest of the album is filled with a diverse mix of reggae ska music and energetic punk twists with a large horn and woodwind section in the band.

The album finishes with the song, “Your Day Will Come” that starts off with an electric guitar solo, and is different than most of the songs on the album. It is more focused on the vocals rather than the instruments for the majority of the song. This song is a tribute about one of the band mates of Streetlight Manifesto, speaking with a woman about how she told him that his day would one day come, and it doesn’t matter how much you pray for it, what will be will be.

This song leaves the album and band in a hopeful spot to continue to make music.

In its entirety, this is one of my personal favorite albums of all times. Not many albums grasp my attention throughout the entire thing, but The Hands that Thieve is the one exception.