When you reach the point of releasing a seventh album, you would be forgiven for keeping things muted – perhaps the time has now come to pace yourself, take it easy…
Scottish alt-rockers Twin Atlantic didn’t get that memo. The immediacy of this album’s opening track ‘Asleep’ comes as something of a surprise – a shock, even. The energy levels are turned up beyond maximum and slap you across the face with rock intent. This is a band self-consciously aiming to make an impact right from the start, and there’s no doubt they do that. The track quickly shows itself to be an accurate study in turn-of-the-millenium throwback rock, combining crunchy guitars (from the sound alone, you just know these are being played with huge arm gestures), cracking drums from Joe Lazarus, and octave jumping, close-to-the-mic vocals from Sam McTrusty. It’s teen-angsty pop-rock wonder taking you back to a simpler Web 1.0 world.
From there, we blast through into ‘Stuck In A Car With You’ with barely a pause. This may not be track one’s twin but it’s certainly a very close sibling. ‘World Class Entertainment’ displays more variation, rhythmically in particular, but also in tone and volume levels across the track. The chorus ushers in a welcome widening of the song: it’s a delicious, couldn’t-care-less ode to hedonism (tongues firmly in cheek?) and makes the album feel a little more current. That update to the sonic landscape comes just in time; more of the same would be a step too far.
The fourth track is ‘Sorry’ and this is where things get much more interesting. Here, Twin Atlantic back off the tempo slightly, and display their energy in more subtle and mature ways. This is a passionate power ballad: yes, still huge, particularly those resounding drums, but settled into a more comfortable groove. Sam’s emotional vocals sound more at home here. Everything is falling into place.
—
—
‘Harder’ takes the theme that’s developing and runs away with it, but maybe a little too far. There’s a fine line between retro-inspired alternative rock and the twee. Each listener will have their own view as to where that line lies, and perhaps it depends on your listening mood and circumstances. Perhaps too rashly, I dismissed this track, and its follow-up ‘Get Out’, as filler on first listen. Those frequent lyrical rhymes just got a bit much for me. But I was much more willing to embrace them on a second listen.
But on we move, and there’s no doubt with title track ‘Meltdown’, the pinnacle of the overall record. It’s sweeping, expansive, engaging and interesting. The main musical theme underpinning the song is a slow guitar arpeggio which brings a lush richness and sweeps you away irresistibly. Meanwhile, the drum production is again, rightly, firm and strong, spotlighting the driving rhythm and lending emphasis to key words: “Save me from … myself, don’t run. I’m having a meltdown – but don’t want to let you down.” More than this, each grace-note on the crisp hi-hats comes through, too. Every element here is important and highly emotive, while the song retains that energy I’ve been banging on about. As with ‘Sorry’, this track seems to bring the band into confident and comfortable territory. It elevates everything that’s come before, painting it all in a new light.
The next two tracks show Twin Atlantic’s versatility. ‘I Couldn’t Miss You Much More’ opens with nu-metal guitar notes and, although veering towards noise at times, shows restraint. It’s ultimately another nicely packaged anthem, but includes enough rhythmical and lyrical tricks to hold attention as the album begins to move towards its ending. ‘Lift’ follows, bringing a bass guitar riff straight from the IDLES songbook, and a rather frenetic sense of speed. Both songs do, however, succumb again to some easy lyrical rhyming and set-piece chord sequences.
‘Fall’ returns to the album’s initial hype and energy; that, along with some attractive stop/start moments, and touches of texture with synths and vocal effects, elevate the song and pull everything together nicely again. That makes a great entry into the closing number, ‘Snow In Texas’, the first and only time we hear an acoustic guitar. Instant emotion! And with Sam’s wistful, reverbed vocals doing the heavy lifting, the right ingredients for a damp-eyed singalong are neatly put in place.
There are plentiful moments of great songwriting on this album. But maybe if those moments had been stitched together more coherently, and some of the weaker songs pruned, this album would have been as good as or even better than some of those constituent parts. In the end, of course, this may not really matter: Twin Atlantic have chosen their own path and there’s a sense of freedom, and joy, here.
6/10
Words: Phil Taylor
—
