Glasgow is a pretty exciting place for music right now. An upsurge of talent is starting to spew from the busy city, throwing us delights that rock and/or roll without losing the home grown twang, instead using it as an extra weapon in their musical arsenal. And emo-rock newboys, Twin Atlantic, are the latest offering from this creative city.
But the biggest issue that Twin Atlantic has is their Scottishness. This isn’t a racist comment, far from it. No rather, it’s the inevitable comparisons that will be drawn with other Scottish bands of the moment. Bands that are actually better. Twin Atlantic lack the epic sound or booming morose impact of Glasvegas. They fail to tick the indie cool box like Dananananaykroyd. And they most definitely don’t rock as hard or as well as Biffy Clyro. So where does this leave them? Nowhere is the answer.
Their music doesn’t leave an impression or inspire. It fails to take hold of the listener, instead preferring a run of the mill sound that is by no means offensive to the earphones, but leaves you like a pancake. The album tracks lack direction, neither taking the high road nor the low, instead finding themselves lost in the middle. Debut single, Lightspeed, fails to take off, the chorus flopping about like a wet handshake between Embrace and Feeder. While second single, You’re Turning Into John Wayne, doesn’t sizzle, yet it does give a clearer idea of what the band are about, existing in the world of vans-wearing-teenagers, lip pierced edgy girls and “skaterboyz”. Stealing heavily from bands like Blink 182 in their Blink 182 album era, reaching for big choruses and even bigger guitars. But where the 3 dudes from America with their infectious sounds succeeded, these 4 boys from Scotland fail. Lead singer Sam McTrusty doesn’t have a powerful voice, at no point leaving you with a desire to listen again or pen in a date in your diary to see them live.
Vivarium is the sticky product of a bad musical chemical experiment. They formed Twin Atlantic for “their love of music”, and are clearly fans of bands like Lost Prophets and Funeral For A Friend. But emulating a sound and it making it your own are two completely different things. Twin Atlantic are talented guys, and with some more work in the studio, Vivarium could’ve had some nice tracks. Better Weather, the final song, is touchingly soft, heartfelt, almost Creed-esque at times. But What Is Light? Where Is Laughter? rather sums up this Scottish four piece’s first outing. McTrusty chants “this is what you came for, you came for”, but you’re left wondering if he’s right. We came to listen to your music, not somebody else’s.
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