Friday 20 July 2012

The 2kDozen 500: #269 - Twin Shadow, "Confess"

"Some people say there's a golden light/You're the golden light."

Wow! This album seems a bit more upbeat about the world than most I've listened to this year. The talk of chill wave or whatever doesn't quite ring true, because his vocals ring pretty true and clear themselves. There's not the same sense of an emotional cocooning in sandblasted sounds as other mumbling chill types have been manipulated in front of. This has more of an Eighties template - big, bright, clearly-defined sounds.


"Five Seconds" has some rich, glacial doom-laden sounding synths, like the doorbell chimes of Dis, lord of the Underworld. And the lyrics are of a romantic colour than the usual ironic self-loathing or inaudible shuffling. The lovelornity has clearly-defined edges. Whether they're entirely honest is a different matter. "Confess" may not be an entirely accurate description. It's all in the second person though, eh?


"Patient" reminds me of Depeche Mode a bit with guitar from Brian Eno-era U2 before a farty percussive run through that puts me in mind of John Craven's Newsround. I've just a review that was fiery with disgust at Twin's cheesy postures and loverboy lyrics. It really doesn't bother me so much. I guess a line like "I'll cry/When the movie's over" is saying nothing new, but it says the same thing in a very slightly different way. I don't know; I can't summon up much fury.

Usual levels of mistrust build up during the album, untrustworthy and cheating women out there. That seems a staple for pop albums about "love".  Always slightly depressing, those power struggles. "Be mine tonight" he echoes over and again before the hidden track (hidden on Spotify how exactly?) rounds things off, still sounding like a Ridley Scott film. A bit.

Rating: Eighties Template out of No Fury

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