The Twilight Sad: No One Can Ever Know - Album Review

The Twilight Sad
No One Can Ever Know
Rating: Woof Daddy

When The Twilight Sad's first album Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters came out in 2007 it was a bold updating of the shoegaze sound, taking walls and walls of squalling guitars and placing James Graham's gorgeous Scottish burr full on in front of the mix, adding a distinct humanizing aspect to the music. Their debut was so fully formed there was really nowhere for the band to really take their sound. Second album Forget The Night Ahead, while one of my top albums of 2009, still felt like the band was in a holding pattern, unsure what the next steps should be. In the interim, the band lost founding member Craig Orzel and released a few singles and an EP which continued the band's approach. By this point, I was getting a little tired of the same old same old from the band, but was willing to give them another shot. When the band headed back to the studio to follow up Forget The Night Ahead, I was intrigued by interviews with the band who mentioned that their influences for the album were Cabaret Voltaire, Public Image Ltd, Can, Liars, Autechre, and Magazine. Graham mentioned that guitarist Andy MacFarlane was utilizing more keyboards this go around, making their sound more punishing and cold. Peaking my interest was the band's hiring of Andrew Weatherall for production duties; Weatherall best known for his work on Primal Scream's classic album Screamadelica, and on Fuck Button's last album Tarot Sport.

No One Can Ever Know is a complete triumph of a band updating their sound and taking it in a fresh direction, but it still sounding like the band itself. There will be no mistaking that this is not a Twilight Sad album, Graham's voice is still front and center, bearing the emotional weight. Of course the most significant change is that keyboards and drum machines take the lead, with only a few tracks even containing guitars, and when they are in the mix, they are used in a more textural way. The album is brutal in its icy precision; beats are martial and unforgiving, keyboards are bleak and cold, with Graham's voice the only source of humaneness. Even so, the lyrics are still as haunting and disturbing as ever. Where on Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters the lyrics described the effects of physical and emotional abuse while growing up, No One Can Ever Know is all about the damage later on in life. In fact, the album is almost nihilistic in its themes, the protagonists all damaged and bent sinister in their lives, with the music making it seem like all is hopeless. Fans of Pornography-era Cure will love the new direction of the band.

First song released from the album, "Kill It In The Morning," truly heralded the second coming of the band. Over a droning bed of guitar effects and dirty fuzz bass, the skittering, industrial clank of percussion stomps the production forward. Graham's voice staying low in the mix at first, keeping his rage in check, slowly rising in temper and fury. By the end of the track, when the waves of synths take over, Graham's full anger taking over, practically screaming "It's a shame she wanted more/only place that we couldn't go/what more do you need to know/it's staying here well down below."



There is an amazing, new found muscularness to their tracks, as if the reliance on guitars before were holding them back in some way. The rush of "Dead City" is aggressive and disturbing, the guitars grating and synths washing over the mix.



"Don't Move" exists in a swagger of industrial synths and chugging beats, the protagonist of the song associating love and violence, singing "I want you more than you will ever know/we were paired off in the violence."



The haunting rush of New Order-esque synths motivates the haunting single "Another Bed."



In case I have made this album sound dour and oppressive, there are plenty of songs with moments of great beauty, showing a little light through the gloom. "Sick" could easily stand among one of Radiohead's best singles from the Hail to the Thief era, antiquated drum machines underscore the gorgeous guitar work from MacFarlane and one of Graham's most stunningly emotive vocal performances. It is truly the standout song on the album.



"Nil" takes fractured synth drones and pulsating drums, slowly building up, the drums sounding like a thunderstorm as sheets of synths fall down on Graham's restrained vocal. "Not Sleeping" is also a slow-burning track with delicate interplay between muted guitars and soaring synths, which again erupts with cavernous drums and squalls of guitars, Graham's voice growing in strength and purpose.

No One Can Ever Know is a constantly surprising and intriguing work, even if sometimes its all-purpose bleakness can overshadow the album. Graham's voice, so warm and inviting, always acts as a splash of color and light, making sure things never tip over into self-parody. Few bands can overhaul their sound while still sounding like themselves, and The Twilight Sad seem to understand that you don't have to give up your purpose in order to explore and experiment. No One Can Ever Know has energized the band, and is easily going to make it into my top records of the year.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and peaks one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.