Stage Buzz – Preview: The Twilight Sad
Photo by Nicola CollinsThe Twilight Sad
Metro, Chicago
Friday, October 24, 2014
The title of this violently moody Scottish rock band’s fourth album suggests being trapped, but ultimately points the band forward.
Nobody Wants To Be Here And Nobody Wants To Leave (Fatcat) most certainly refers to the mental exhaustion so thoroughly explored in the lyrics, though not necessarily the music.
Eschewing an incremental approach, the album obliterates the voltility that defined its predecessor, No One Can Ever Know. The 2012 record was constantly hounded by the grind of rusty metal, like a dilapidated merry-go-round left spinning in an empty playground or the shrill scraping of steel on steel. Its portent manifested itself as claustrophobia, to which the band’s only response was a clanking, post-punk battery and James Graham‘s curious combination of Paul Banks‘ wavering and Morrissey’s feigned indifference.
Nobody Wants To Be Here is profoundly pop in comparison. The industrial noise has morphed into a delectably weird, but somewhat fashionable keyboard warble. Nervous chords and guitar lines are awarded a jangle or tasteful reverb. “Last January” swoops in to commence the album’s central approch; The Twilight Sad break into what could be considered an amble for them, repeating the feel on “Drown So I Can Watch” and “Pills I Swallow” while ignoring the overcast.
Strokes like this would elicit cries of “sell out!” in the past, however here it’s more like evidence of The Twilight Sad’s capabilities. No One might not satisfy listeners originally enticed by the band’s rough edges, but it should generate confidence that they can pivot without losing footing.
We Were Promised Jetpacks headline. This show was moved from the Vic Theatre to Metro.
– Steve Forstneger
Tickets available HERE
Category: Featured, Stage Buzz, Weekly
