Sad-bastards The Twilight Sad (it’s right there in the name) have a new album out, Nobody Wants To Be Here And Nobody Wants to Leave.
In the past I’ve found the Scots band, for all their strengths (more on those in a moment) a bit prone to a gloomy sameness, that can make more than a few songs in a row just a little much to take.
Well, they are still gloomy; but they’ve incorporated just enough variety this time to hold interest all the way through the record.
Recorded again with Peter Katis (Interpol), this album mopes beautifully.
Singer James Graham is possessed of a strong, bell-clear choirboy tenor, which he uses to croon his fragmentary lyrics (often consisting of just a few opaque phrases, repeated ad infinitum) and folk-inflected vocal melodies.
Perhaps the best part of his vocals is the way he makes absolutely no attempt to suppress his charming, burring brogue, over a textured musical bed that chimes and chugs (and then roars) in all the right places.
The last album No One Can Ever Know emphasized the tense, claustrophobic post-punk half of the band’s equation:
Puppets are creepy:
The song that got me into the band, from their debut Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters:
Post header image sourced from Wikimedia Commons.
There are meetings to go to
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Maybe I should have gone with a more appealing title. Like “Twilight!”. I could have roped in a bunch of unsuspecting Kristen Stewart fans.Report
(Just now listening. It is kinda sad.)Report
It really is. And that’s coming from a Smiths/Cure fan. Jeez, cheer up, guys!
I’m a fan of the phrase “putting the boot in”.
He does have a lovely singing voice though, and I really do like this new one.Report
i like the art direction and the music. not sure about the vocals, but it’s growing on me.Report
and i bought the new album last night from fatcat direct. why no flac, fatcat? you make me sad.
anyway, good job gatekeeper/curator glyph.Report
I’m probably going to buy it as well.
I figure 2 people from a midlevel non-music blog post is not a bad haul for a band, eh?Report
Me three. And thanks for the post Glyph! I liked the Tamaryn one as well. Good stuff.
Being all old-like, my musical horizons have become a wee bit shortened of late outa general agey decrepitude and curmudgeonness. So thanks for expanding the sight lines.Report
Thanks guys!Report
This, from one of their earlier albums, is gonna be part of my rotation now:
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Talk about a song title as a complete short story.
Also the line “And fourteen, and you know…”
Yes. Yes, I do.
It sounds like they took the drum pattern there from Yeah Yeah Yeah’s “Maps”. Which wouldn’t surprise me:
I’ve been singing “And She Would Darken The Memory” for DAYS.
Rhyming “puttin'” with “the boot in” is just so satisfying. “And friendly faces, with put-on smiles”.Report