The Twilight Sad - It’s The Long Goodbye
★★★★
ROCK ACTION
It’s instructive that The Twilight Sad’s first album since reducing to founding duo James Graham and Andy MacFarlane yields the most powerful version of the band’s cathartic soundworld. Perhaps the subject matter helped: It’s The Long Goodbye documents Graham losing his mother to dementia while simultaneously becoming a father, a real-life crossroads detailed with unsettling candour from the first line of the opening song (“And we slowly watch you go”).
To counterpoint the singer’s mournful Scots folk timbre, MacFarlane’s euphoric post-punk schemes roughen the shiny patina of 2019’s It Won’t Be Like This All The Time for a transcendent blend of New Order, My Bloody Valentine and, inevitably, The Cure. He’s previously covered The Twilight Sad, now Robert Smith contributes guitar, bass and keyboards to three songs, notably roiling epic Dead Flowers. Summoning bright light from the heart of darkness, his protégés have done him proud.
It’s The Long Goodbye is out March 27 on Rock Action.
ORDER: Amazon | Rough Trade | HMV
Tracklisting:
1. GET AWAY FROM IT ALL
2. DESIGNED TO LOSE
3. ATTEMPT A CRASH LANDING - THEME
4. WAITING FOR THE PHONE CALL
5. THE CEILING UNDERGROUND
6. DEAD FLOWERS
7. INHOSPITABLE/HOSPITAL
8. CHEST WOUND TO THE CHEST
9. BACK TO FOURTEEN
10. TV PEOPLE STILL THROWING TVS AT PEOPLE
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