The Twilight Sad - 'Fourteen Autumns And Fifteen Winters' (Fat Cat) Released 07/05/07

Lesser publications may start a review of the new album by The Twilight Sad by berating the band’s choice of name, but there is wistfulness evoked which is wholly fitting for this Glasgow-based band. Feeling darkness falling with nothing to look at but the past inside your own head. The album title ‘Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters’ creates that sort of epic notion of long never-ending winters. Long descriptive track titles, which may be slightly perturbing to some in a pompous Morrissey-type-way, are actually little stories in themselves. Whole worlds contained within, from ‘Walking For Two Hours’ to ‘Last Year The Rain Didn’t Fall Quite So Hard’.

This narrative continues throughout the album, there is an introspection, which seems to follow on from the bitter stories of fellow Scots Arab Strap; if only they had turned their attention away from failing relationships and alcohol fuelled rages. Instead looking towards the disquiet that comes from growing up in a claustrophobic small town. It’s the uneasiness of childhood and the strange words of parents, the first track ‘Cold Days From The Birdhouse’ descends into singer James Graham repeating the phrase, "So where are your manners?"

Similarly ‘That Summer, At Home I Had Become The Invisible Boy’ takes an authoritative drum beat courtesy of Mark Devine, which is reminiscent of Yeah Yeah Yeah’s ‘Maps’ and adds a discordant accordion drone. It starts, ‘I’m fourteen and you know’ before going on to describe having a ‘strong father figure’ and ‘a loving mother’. Yet the emotion in Graham’s voice portrays something else. The gap between the family home and the outside world, the stability offered in comparison to a world where things can be cruel, and unfair.  James Graham’s voice sounds in parts very much like the Strap’s Aidan Moffat but without his dry and chillingly unemotional plateaux. Graham’s voice gradually builds up to a frustrated rage before settling back down to sing more observationally "The kid’s are on fire/ In the bedroom".