Twilight Sad -‘No One Can Ever Know.’ (Fat Cat)

The first person who tipped me off about the Twilight Sad was none other than Emma Pollock, when I interviewed her several years ago for this blog. At the time the band were receiving rave notices for their debut album Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters. A few months later I caught them on a bill that also featured Broken Records and was headlined by Idlewild and it was clear that here were an excllent band, drenched in feedback and very powerful indeed.

I’m pleased but not surprised to report -having caught them again in November – that the Twilight Sad have come of age on this, their third album. They still sound like The Twilight Sad – but they have also grown in confidence and power. Now it’s not just about the scottish aesthetic that made them welcome bedfellows with the likes of Mogwai and Frightened Rabbit; it’s also about the post-punk influences that have fed through onto this record.

This is not to say that this sounds like yet another indie band regurgitating Entertainment! once more; rather that the likes of Magazine, the Banshees and The Cure circa Pornography have fed through. Additionally, the greated use of electronics recall Depeche Mode circa Violator and Songs Of Faith And Devotion and the work of Autechre.

The first track to be circulated ‘Kill It In The Morning’ and single ‘Sick’ let us know something big was coming. Listening to this album as one incredible whole is a staggeringly intense but utterly rewarding and wonderful experience. If this does not take them into mainstream success then the joke is on the listening public.

****1/2

No One Can Ever Know is released on Fat Cat on February 6.