Third and latest album from the Scottish band known for guitar squall, obliterating beats and fancy, Morrissey-esque vocals...my review went up at Dusted today.
The Twilight Sad
No One Can Ever Know
FatCat
There’s a headlong rush to “Kill It in the Morning,” the second single from the Twilight Sad’s third full-length, a dry, clattery momentum in the guitar and cymbal-slashing drums. The band that used to build shimmering, gorgeous, barely moving walls of tone is in a hurry to get on now, pushing post-punk style through dystopian, jittery landscapes of romantic disconnection.
Much is the same on No One Can Ever Know, the bludgeoning wallop of Mark Devine’s drums, the fluttery, Mozzy excesses of James Graham’s singing style. Yet now, with bass player Craig Orzel gone, guitarist and songwriter Andy MacFarlane has made significant changes to the Scottish band’s sound, cutting the guitars to terse, rhythmic elements but softening the contours with lush Cure-like synthesizers. This third album has an altogether chillier, more propulsive vibe, as if the boy lost in bedroom reveries for Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters is now striding purposefully forward, gaze focused, end in view.
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8 comments:
I was looking forward to this review and you got it exactly. The paragraph about the lyrics was quite helpful because I'd noted a shift but hadn't explored it too fully yet. I like most that short description of the guitars -"cutting the guitars to terse, rhythmic elements" - because anything I turned over in my mind seemed rather inadequate. Listening to the album is still such a pleasure, but it's also satisfying to read such a great review of it.
Thank you, Andrew. It's one of my favorites so far...very happy not to have screwed it up. How've you been? Busy?
January was busy in a horrible way, but things are settling down now. I've got a part-time job tutoring English that starts soon so it might get busy again.
It's good to be busy. My real work (as opposed to music work) is dead in the water, and despite frantic efforts, I can't seem to get it going again.
What happened? This is the investment brochure writing, correct?
I'm not sure. Everything stopped at once. Either everyone's suddenly figured out that I'm a fraud and a failure (after, oh, 25 years of fooling them), or the industry's at a standstill, or I'm asking the wrong people. In any case, I haven't worked for money in two weeks, and it's been very spotty for the last three months.
That is weird that it'd slow down like that. I wish I knew why. I hope that it picks up for you.
It's starting to get really scary.
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