Written 28th October 2014:
The Twilight Sad – Nobody Wants to be here and Nobody Wants to Leave
The Twilight Sad – Nobody Wants to be here and Nobody Wants to Leave
The Band: James Graham (vocals), Andy MacFarlane (guitars) Mark Devine (Drums), Johnny
Doherty (bass)
This week
sees the return of Scottish alternative-rockers The Twilight Sad with this
their fourth album ‘Nobody Wants to be here and Nobody Wants to Leave’. Originally hailing from Kilsyth, Scotland the
band have built a loyal and dedicated following with three well-received albums
under their belts from their full-debut record ‘Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen
Winters’ receiving critical-acclaim back in 2007, followed by 2009’s excellent,
brooding and guitar-distortion heavy second-album ‘Forget the Night Ahead’. 2012 saw the band’s third album ‘No One Can
Ever Know’ still capturing the band’s intense and cavernous live sound while
the record was more laced with synths and electronics throughout, now leading
us up to this week’s latest album release.
Nobody Wants to be here and
Nobody Wants to Leave
1.
There’s A Girl In The Corner
2.
Last January
3.
I Could Give You All That You Don’t Want
4.
It Never Was The Same
5.
Drown So I Can Watch
6.
In Nowheres
7.
Nobody Wants to Be Here and Nobody Wants to Leave
8.
Pills I Swallow
9.
Leave The House
10. Sometime
I Wish I Could Fall Asleep
With a nicely picked
electric-guitar riff and an arena-filling drum-rhythm ‘There’s a Girl in the
Corner’ opens the record with distinct backing-synths helping to set the dark,
haunting tone for this album alongside James’ distinctly Scottish vocals “You’re not coming back/She’s not coming
back for more…There’s a girl in the corner/and she’s crying for you”. It’s a slow-burner and deliberately crafted
track that sets the early dark tone for ‘Nobody Wants to be Here’. Second-track ‘Last January’, previously
previewed by the band online and in recent live performances, has a more up-tempo
rhythm and percussion to it with spooky synths and a nice bridge “And they say you can’t be won/And it’s your
eyes…touching my eyes”. ‘I Could
Give You All That You Don’t Want’ continues with another upbeat tempo and
particularly a driving bass-line at its heart from Johnny intertwined with
electric-guitar strums from Andy before we have a stand-out track on the record
‘It Never Was The Same’. Initially
another slowed-down, synth-driven song it has real endearing and touching
vocals midway through the track from James “So
we danced to save them all/We asked to save them all/We tried to save them
all/You didn’t have to kill them all”. This track is a strong highlight early on in
the record.
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‘Drown So I Can Watch’
despite being a brutally bleak track-title sees guitars and bass pulse this
track along, while James’ vocals portray a rocky relationship between a couple “I put you through hell/But you carried it
all so well/You carried it all so well”.
This is a heartfelt, honest track yet with a captivating, alluring charm
about it. Midway through the record ‘In
Nowheres’ is the loudest track on the album so far, featuring heavy guitar-riffs
from Andy and James’ vocals coming across with a distant effect here creating a broad
and large sounding rock-track, before title-track ‘Nobody Wants to Be Here and
Nobody Wants to Leave’ sees guitars, bass, synths and percussion all chug-away
together in union as one with the real-focus on James’ cryptic story-telling
here “Can you stay tomorrow?/You won’t
leave tomorrow/I don’t know where we went wrong?” This an atmospheric, brooding track, a
featured trademark sound of The Twilight Sad.
‘Pills I Swallow’ is another
bleak track-title but also another charmer of a track, again with a haunting
sound about it featuring a sweet, twinkling gentle synth-melody hand-holding
the track along nicely “It’s you/It’s
always you/Telling me what to do”. It’s
like the soundtrack to an eerie, unrequited fairy-tale. Lovely stuff.
Penultimate track ‘Leave the House’ is another, stripped-down, slower
affair with organ-like synths and gentle percussion featuring alongside James’
dulcet tones gently repeating lines “And
I see you/I see you/It’s lonely in the dark/Lonely in the dark” and more intensely further
into the song “I’ve been put to bed/I’ve
been put bed/I’ve been put to bed/I don’t know what you know” with a more
rocky guitar-riff midway through the track, before we have album closer ‘Sometimes
I Wish I Could Fall Asleep’. Again another
stripped-down haunting track with gentle piano notes being featured here it’s
very much a closing ballad for the record with soft percussion coursing throughout
it and crisp, tender vocals here again from James “You don’t love me anymore/You don’t need me anymore/And we’ve been
left behind” and is possibly the most moving track on the album.
‘Nobody Wants
to be here and Nobody Wants to Leave’ doesn’t pull any punches with its
content; it’s a dark, bleak and brutally honest record yet at the same time an
amazingly haunting and beautiful piece of work all the same which flourishes
with repeated listens. If you’re familiar
with the band’s previous albums you will have expected nothing less here but
let’s be clear here that The Twilight Sad are a band that masterfully hone and
carefully craft the songs that they write and this album arguably sees the band
at the height of their song-writing. As
I say I found this to be a tender and sublime record, that has a tendency to reveal
further charms with repeated listens and I’m going to give
this one 9/10 as it’s refreshing to see a band, pushing and challenging
themselves to create a sound that’s really true to them. I highly recommend to watch the acoustic session below to see the amazingly beautiful sound the band create on this latest record.
It Never Was the Same
‘Flynny’
Track 1 ‘There’s a Girl in the Corner’
Track 2 ‘Last January’
The Twilight Sad - Acoustic Session for Tenement TV
Band Website:
www.thetwilightsad.com
