The Twilight Sad: Forget The Night Ahead (2009)

New Wax


I caught The Twilight Sad, along with labelmates We Were Promised Jetpacks and Frightened Rabbit, last night at The Bottletree in Birmingham, Alabama and would easily place it as one of the best shows I've been to. It'd be impossible to choose a favorite performance because I've worn out albums from all three and they each offer a very different experience, but when it comes down to an unadulterated, nerve-shattering aural onslaught, The Twilight Sad's set was unparalleled in its unbridled power. The band has an innate ability to evoke a raw emotional response, and trust me, the places they take you aren't very pretty. On the band's new album Forget The Night Ahead, singer James Graham and company may turn in their most accessible collection of songs, but they still force their listeners to face the ugliness dead-on. The arrangements are more intricate and more instruments have been introduced to the mix. The song structures even take a slight turn towards more traditional, but there's still enough chaos and noise to appease fans of their 2007 debut Fourteen Autumns, Fifteen Winters. The Twilight Sad is, after all, a band that relishes the battle between melody and dissonance, and Forget The Night Ahead offers conflicting energy in spades. Forget The Night Ahead extends Graham's vague yet image-driven lyricism, but this time around he's moved past reliving childhood traumas. On "I Became A Prostitute", Graham recites over thudding drums, shoegaze-inspired guitar, and a driving bass line: "Still believing what she sells/ Only girl in the town with her fingers in eyelids." It's not always clear what the meaning is behind Graham's songs, but the lack of lyrical transparency adds even more mystery to the band's already enigmatic sound. Forget The Night Ahead is a step in a more mature direction but it's still wrought with the intensity that made The Twilight Sad so damn intriguing in the first place. -- Capt. Obvious

Listen:
MP3: The Twilight Sad - Reflection Of The Television
MP3: The Twilight Sad - The Floorboards Under The Bed

Tags: The Twilight Sad, Forget The Night Ahead