World's First Cinema's 'Something of Wonder' is a Pop-Rock Spectacle of Catharsis and Contrast: Album Review
- Abby Anderson
- Jul 11
- 3 min read
Stand-out tracks: Freak Show, End of My Rope, Holy Ghost
Our favorites: Paranoid, Broken, Sweet World
Release date: July 11, 2025
Label: Fearless Records
For fans of: Turnstile, Of Monsters and Men, The Wrecks
Something of Wonder makes it clear that the release of World's First Cinema’s debut full-length isn't the end of a chapter, but rather the start of an ever-morphing symphonic journey through the beautiful and the bizarre.
The duo comprised of John Sinclair and Fil Thorpe—masterfully weaving keyboard and guitar into a multidimensional partnership—are fearless in their composition as a unit. Creating their sonic identity the unexpected, from hardcore instrumental bridges and melting, softer, violin-laced passages that stuns with compositional elegance. World’s First Cinema are quite simply masters at contrast and navigating the in between—hard and soft, light and shadow, chaos and calm—and bending it into emotionally resonant shape.
Few bands can make darkness feel like a delicious treat, but World’s First Cinema excel at it. After the somewhat angelic introduction in the form of “Hold My Own,” “Freak Show,” descends into the doubts the band hid behind in the opening track and transforms darkness into delicious theatricality. Laced with a pop-punk soul and a carnival of sound design tricks—a maniacal laugh, ambient noise that presses in on the listener—it plays like a twisted invitation to a world where outsiders are the stars. Something of a jarring, sonic catharsis, the band sings, “I need a friend here like I need a knife sticking out of my back.” “Paranoid” continues the descent into psychological unease. With flavors of Latin-tinged percussion, primal screams, and a guitar riff that loops like a thought you can’t shake, it delivers exactly what its title promises. The repeated “I think I’m paranoid!” becomes more than a hook—it’s an obsession, a voice in your head, underscored by frantic production that refuses to let go.
Something of Wonder moves through emotions like the spectacle it mimics, leaning into more fragile emotions with the arrival of the middle of the project. Perhaps the single most impressive song across the board is “End of My Rope” - the jewel in the crown. Lush string arrangements swirl behind vocals that bleed with vulnerability, breathing new life into lyrical territory we’ve all walked through: exhaustion, surrender, the desire to be seen. It’s the moment when the album’s theatricality meets its most human point. “Broken” follows like a coda—the calm after the storm. There's a resurgence of clarity in the lyric: “You can swallow me whole / Just show me something of wonder.” It’s a breathtaking nod to the project’s title, and a reminder that even in devastation, beauty can rise. Pulling from electronic textures, it rounds out the A-side on an emotional high, pulsing with both melancholy and hope.
The back half of the album holds some of the most profound artistic risks, with “Holy Ghost,” channeling a gritty gospel sonic beneath its deceptively spiritual title. A thundering piano line and a ghostly choir provide the backdrop for lyrics like “Lord knows the devil does guiding.”
From there, the tide turns. A string of tracks—“Into Pieces,” “Sweet World,” and “Postcard”—usher in a softer, more ethereal palette. The lyrical focus shifts, too: from being scorched by love to protecting those they hold dear. On “Sweet World” the band pleads, “Give me a reason / Foolish hearts believe in foolish things,” and mourn, “Wonder sweet world / Why you gotta be so cruel?” These moments float, fragile but intentional, like a deep breath after the storm’s chaos.
The cinematic sweep of the final tracks builds toward “Postcard,” where the softness of the B-side is brought back into conversation with the grandeur of the A-side. And just when you think the curtains have closed, the reprise of “Broken (feat. JD Cliffe)” arrives like an epilogue—an echo of what’s been, and a doorway to what could follow.
With Something of Wonder, World’s First Cinema pave the way as sonic architects and cinematic visionaries, mixing dissonance and beauty, strings and screams, sacred chants and electronic swells. It’s a dark fairytale, a theatrical storm, and above all, a masterclass in how to make emotion feel enormous, aring you to stay seated until the very last note fades. And you will.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT WORLD'S FIRST CINEMA:
