The second full length offering from the Twilight Sad sees them, if anything, darker and more unsettled than on Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters or the intervening EP’s. Titles like I Became a Prostitute, The Neighbours Can’t Breathe are testament to that. So too are the snatched lyrics – ‘There’s people downstairs’, ‘You’re the bearer of a womb without love’, ‘ They put up no fight.. we’ll bury them all’ – all lay down an underpinning but still opaque sense of threat and foreboding.
All sounds pretty gloomy stuff but there is something I can’t stop listening to here. James Graham’s vocals are in a heavy Glaswegian brogue that adds an urgency and directness to the already oddly threatening lyrics, Andy MacFarlanes sundry noises, accordion and signature guitar sound (reminiscent of the Kitchens of Distinction sound) are under scored by the bass lines and squelchy drum sounds from Craig Orzel and Mark Devine. Given the uncompromisingly miserabilist lyrics you do feel that a night out with Mr Graham might be quite a depressing affair.
Although so far it seems to be the early tracks of the album that have burned their way into the memory – especially I Became a Prostitute and Seven Years of Letters, I am sure that the later tracks will inveigle their way in, perhaps That Birthday Present for example (that really does sound like a very grumpy and miserable Kitchens of Distinction somehow)
Well really surely the clutch of Scottish bands must be complete now? Twilight Sad, Frightened Rabbit, We Were Promised Jetpacks and There Will be Fireworks – to a man all with enigmatic band names. Worth a mention too that on the day of this new Twilight Sad album comes the official release of those other Scottish heroes Idlewild’s latest and self released album, Post Electric Blues
Twilight Sad website
Twilight Sad Myspace
Idlewild website
Idelwild Myspace
Kitchens of Distinction Myspace
Stephen Hero/Kitchens of Distinction website
The "Music Always Gives Me A Lift" Blog 