ARTiST: Turin Brakes
ALBUM: Outbursts
BiTRATE: 185kbps avg
QUALiTY: EAC Secure Mode / LAME 3.97 Final / -V2 --vbr-new / 44.100Khz
LABEL: Cooking Vinyl
GENRE: Indie
SiZE: 63.70 megs
PLAYTiME: 0h 45min 50sec total
RiP DATE: 2010-02-27
STORE DATE: 2010-02-26
Track List:
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01. Sea Change 4:02
02. Mirror 2:56
03. Rocket Song 3:23
04. Paper Heart 3:46
05. The Invitation 3:29
06. Will Power 3:59
07. Apocolips 3:39
08. Embryos 3:11
09. Never Stops 4:11
10. The Letting Down 4:03
11. Radio Silence 4:06
12. Outbursts 5:05
Release Notes:
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Turin Brakes - Olly Knights and Gale Paridjanian - return and expectancy is,
well, middling at best: for all the promise of their Mercury-nominated 2001
debut The Optimist, subsequent releases have failed to capture its essence, and
with it the buzz around the Turin Brakes brand.
Rather than second or third album syndrome, it would appear that the band's
trajectory was altered as a matter of design rather than fault. Eschewing
organic acoustica in favour of soft-rock stylings, and accumulating bodies in
the process, Olly and Gale swapped Emergency 72's exquisite paranoia for Snow
Patrol-style safe playing.
And while these albums - Ether Song, JackInABox, Dark On Fire - were all
perfectly well received, being as they were entirely competent productions, they
spurned Optimist's rawness, sounding by comparison extremely polished and
comfortable, not to mention flirting dangerously with the slumbering tenets of
easy listening.
This is why Outbursts may just exceed wavering expectations. Written, produced
and performed by just the two of them (for the most part, anyway), Turin Brakes
are harking back to their edgier origins. To paraphrase Olly, they're no longer
having to play major label politics. The scene is set.
Opening track and lead single Sea Change sets the band's stall with aplomb, a
folky strum soon joined by a thumping kick drum and Olly's trademark timbre:
"Six billion backs against the wall / Now do we walk or run?" It's a leap back
to their 2001 urgency, everything intact, everything immediate.
Mirror further channels their minor chord micro-masterpieces, a soaring chorus
underpinned by an infectious acoustic lick. It's the kind of track they have
always been able to craft, but, stripped back of any unnecessary production, it
boasts the hitherto-absent freshness that put Turin Brakes on the map in the
first place.
Rocket Song, similarly, features the kind of glorious crescendos that marked
Ether Song, the effect here rendered all the more potent thanks to an
uncluttered approach: Olly's ascent through the scales is the track's selling
point, and it is afforded the reverence to stand as such.
And the highlights keep on coming: Paper Heart's heartbreaking waltz and
delicate harmonies remind you just how good the band can be toned down; The
Invitation exhibits similar tenderness, almost channelling Radiohead's purest
acoustic sadness; Apocolips' unsettlingly pacy picking blossoms into a chorus of
unexpected chord changes and harmonies, the listener's ear urged to lend
undivided attention.
Into the album's final third, Embryos sees Gale take up vocal duties, and while
his delivery is more than a little reminiscent of Flight Of The Conchords' Bret
McKenzie, it is a track both charming and loveable in its delicacy, honesty and
ever-so-slightly awkward execution.
Never Stops and The Letting Down breed the Turin Brakes formula with old country
and blues principles to shimmering effect, while Radio Silence endows the album
with its songwriting zenith: a classic progression interwoven with clever hooks,
it suddenly explodes into growling power chords and a wailing solo, as if the
band have enlisted the help of prog rock's founding fathers.
By the time the sad tones of Outbursts' poignant title track have faded from
earshot, there is little left to doubt about Turin Brakes' success in meeting
their self-imposed remit. Without wishing to unduly gloss over the intermitting
albums, Outbursts captures and builds upon the intangible beauty of their debut
effort. Turin Brakes are, once again, a must-hear.