The Twilight Sad - No One Can Ever Know (Album Review)
Thursday, 02 February 2012
Written by Ben Bland
The title of this, the third The Twilight Sad record, in many ways sums it up better than any reviewer could possibly hope to. With the introduction of new facets to their distinctive personality, The Twilight Sad have created something with hidden depths and sometimes curtained brilliance. Like their previous efforts, this is an album founded on the basic principle of tearing apart the listener’s heartstrings. It does so just as potently as their previous work, albeit there is a noticeably different musical template at work here. Any suspicions that The Twilight Sad were a one-trick pony should be put to bed by this release.
Opener “Alphabet” makes this immediately apparent. Andy MacFarlane’s mammoth walls of guitar noise have been well and truly put to bed, replaced by symbiotic work between his six-stringer and a backdrop of fluctuating synths. Much has been made of the supposed influence of krautrock on this album, but in reality this isn’t a Kraftwerk tribute, nor is it just a record doused in Nine Inch Nails-esque industrial twinges. The Twilight Sad have evolved in the manner in which they present their traditional musical aesthetic without particularly referencing the works of others. This album is still, unmistakeably, the work of the band that produced both “Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters” and “Forget the Night Ahead”, just with textures broadened and rearranged.
Moving deeper into the record provides some more obvious nods to their past. “Sick” may be built around a guitar refrain rather than a pummelling, tremolo driven block of sound, but it is the most obviously guitar-centric song on the record and the most immediate. The strongest moment, however, is the brutal closing statement of “Kill It in the Morning”. As it fades from cacophony into silence James Graham is left there to howl alone for a second without accompaniment. It might just be the most chilling moment in The Twilight Sad’s discography to date…and there have been plenty already.
With Graham’s vocals and lyrics straight out of the top draw as per usual, and with the music finding new ways to reach its uniquely powerful heights, this is perhaps the band’s finest work to date. There will always be those who cannot look beyond the less delicate approach the band took on their first full-lengths but this third effort matches up better and better with every listen…and so we come back to that title. There is something individually captivating about The Twilight Sad and perhaps more so than ever on this album, but it is difficult to put into words exactly how they do it. Perhaps if one could it would lessen the effect. Perhaps “No One Can Ever Know”.
“No One Can Ever Know” is out on Monday via Fat Cat records. The Twilight Sad tour the UK from the 9th to the 16th February.
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Opener “Alphabet” makes this immediately apparent. Andy MacFarlane’s mammoth walls of guitar noise have been well and truly put to bed, replaced by symbiotic work between his six-stringer and a backdrop of fluctuating synths. Much has been made of the supposed influence of krautrock on this album, but in reality this isn’t a Kraftwerk tribute, nor is it just a record doused in Nine Inch Nails-esque industrial twinges. The Twilight Sad have evolved in the manner in which they present their traditional musical aesthetic without particularly referencing the works of others. This album is still, unmistakeably, the work of the band that produced both “Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters” and “Forget the Night Ahead”, just with textures broadened and rearranged.
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