Review: The Twilight Sad - 'Nobody Wants To Be Here and Nobody Wants To Leave'

The Twilight Sad are constantly trying to develop their sound; once Scottish noise-makers utilising feedback with ferocious power and beautiful melodies, then analogue-synth driven dynamos, all haunting keyboard beeps and songs that are as dark as the night.

Now, a combination of all those elements has been focused, honed and channeled into ten marvellous pop tunes that encompass ‘Nobody Wants To Be Here and Nobody Wants To Leave‘, full of structures, catchy nuances and crystal-clear melodies that elevate them to ethereal levels of sonic quality.

‘There’s a Girl in the Corner’ hits with a sense of immediacy and intimacy, as though peeking over the bushes, and grows with a harrowing, underpinning grand piano sequence and small strangulations of fidgeting guitar parts that add some venom to the veins of a powerful intro. The vocals sound like an astronaut’s last cry for help from the darkness of outer-space, and the mesh of instruments that collide together pour some stunning colour over a tune which at first glance would to be nothing but a dull black and white that shades a forgotten city.

The album’s intention of being a combination of the elements which have led the band to where they are now is apparent on ‘I Could Give You All That Don’t Want’, an energised slice of pop authority with unusual strokes of sound that fasten themselves to the drums, bass and vocals. A fresh track after every listen, where something new is discovered with each twist and turn.

‘It Never Was The Same’ lowers its guard for a slightly more relaxing moment in which heart and soul have yet to be seen until the vocals come in partnered with a synthesizer undertone that sings and sways in the most ghostly of manners. The album is a clear development, not predictable, but with each song the band finds a new-found confidence in the things they have grown to love and get bored with and let go of. ‘Drown So I Can Watch’ and ‘In Nowheres’ have a deep and pulsating heartbeat, gothic and gigantic, hungry for more. The title-track ignites in a fist-fight of futuristic drums, unsure of itself – loud or quiet? Hard or soft? Despite its spasmodic and special complexion, it still manages to provide a highly euphoric state of mind, maybe due to the trustworthy vocals which are drenched in fabulous studio garments, or because of the sheer confusion of a song that glimmers in a quickening tremor of sound and light, space and time.

This in particular is a record from a band working toward their strengths, making their strongest album yet. They can now carve and craft near-perfect songs that teeter on the edge. ‘Pills I Swallow’ sounds like rummaging through old photographs – eerie, airy, smoky and foggy, it unfolds gently and is nothing short of supernatural. ‘Leave The House’ and ‘Sometimes I Wished I Could Fall Asleep’ once again comprise the ominous and mischievous sides to a lullaby only a heart so black could come to terms with; special in their own, unique way to everything else, sad and sombre, but splendid and stunning all the same.

There is a childlike and menacing aura that clouds the album; ‘clouds’ in the sense of providing great atmosphere and formidable aesthetic to the tunes, not ‘clouds’ as in the sense of confusion and insecurity.

These are ten striking tunes that will break and beat you, but then offer a meaningful cure.