Album Review

Twin Atlantic – Vivarium

• 22nd Sep 2009

Sam McTrusty may just have the most perfect name in music. Lead singer of Glaswegian upstarts Twin Atlantic, McTrusty has found a very trusty formula indeed. This trusty formula explodes into focus with all the effervescence of an over-excited potion in the long awaited mini-album Vivarium.

Having cemented their place “on the radar” supporting various big names such as LostProphets and The Subways, Twin Atlantic have waited until 2009 to grace us with a record, and what a record it is, wrapped up in a delicate honesty and a lyrical potency, the simple poetry of desperate and lonely nights in Scotland provides a gorgeous backdrop to the tense and overwhelming strips of guitars and drums that clatter with an aura of anarchy throughout the album.

The fact that Vivarium is a mini-album and not an album is hugely important. 8 dosages of this formula is a perfect amount to quell any suspicion that the onslaught of noise may just be all too similar. That’s not to say that the onslaught is bad in the first place, it is anything but, it is instead a frightening and unsettling anger that kisses the hand of “emo” but never introduces itself. This sense of musical worry and dismay is perfectly felt in the edgy tirade of sleaze and smut “Women After All” and whilst this is one of Vivarium’s highlights, it is not the stand out track.

That honour falls to the most sincere track, the curtain closer, “Better Weather” with slight flicks at a piano and a strained vocal attempt, bordering on heartbreaking, the band making more noise in Scotland than anyone else at the moment manage to delve deep into their souls and produce a ballad, and a delightful one at that. It is the ideal ending to a record that thematically dips in and out of guilt and hate and crucially still sounds real and honest; hate guilt, reality and honesty being the four most important ingredients in Professor McTrusty and company’s formula of beauty.