Album Review

The Twilight Sad – Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters

• 30th May 2007

Twilight Sad sing with a broad Scottish twang but that, for me is where the similarity with the famous strawberry blond pair ends. In a nutshell, I’d say that these guys are a Scottish version of ‘The Editors’ rather than the Proclaimers! The album is full of ire and frustration, garnished with driving guitars and important sounding drum crescendos that give this a not insignificant sound.

The problem (there always is a problem in this column) is that I can’t see a single in there. It all seems to mould into one big sound and no matter how many times I listen I can’t pick out one memorable hook or lyric. It’s like asking someone with Alzheimer’s to do the last task in the generation game. Maybe it’s a bit commercio-cynical to be talking about singles but I do like my music to have memorable elements to hang onto and this album fails me in that respect.

It’s music with substance though and the Scottishness of the sound is actually quite different and exciting. The singer has gone out of his way to convey his accent in the same way that Paul Smith from Maximo Park makes his stuff sound very ’Geordie’. I also like the instrumental attention to detail and the sense of passion surrounding the music.

Not sure about the name though. Twilight Sad…. Mmmm. I’ll say no more.