Turin Brakes. A band that negated thrash guitar, screaming, anti-school, anti-everything sentiments and opted instead for acoustic guitar, tender vocals and poetic lyrics.
Feeling Oblivion opens as a gentle, dreamy acoustic number, with guitar and piano. It’s a very summary tune, in so far as you feel the warmth of the voices, the gentle light from the guitars and the delicate breeze of the melody. It’s a very beautiful opening, and a taste of the joy of acoustic music which had been this far ignored in the mainstream. There was of course Belle & Sebastian, who for me are highly overrated, and several other bands, but for me Turin Brakes godly voices transcend the pretenders, particularly with this track.
The second single off the track is Underdog (Save Me). It did pretty well in the UK charts, though good music is often ignored in favour of fast, throwaway trash tunes. Much of Underdog (Save Me) is familiar Turin Brakes music, and there are no surprises. It’s a great track, however, with a nice acoustic solo towards playing out the end of the track.
If you want to be excitable, then Emergency 72 won’t do anything for you in that department. Bringing in electric, but not to the point of thrashing it to create grating, wretching noises. It’s a track that plods along nicely, not distracting, just melodic. Compared to the earlier tracks, it’s much slower and a very much laid back.
The slow pace of acoustic folk rock following from Emergency 72 continues the tradition with Future Boy. It’s a very positive track, with some interestingly morbid topics. It’s very a sparse, accompanied by acoustic guitar and bass, and yet quite imaginative. Sort of like being read a fairy tale story, almost child like in that regard.
The track that was released as their first single, accompanied by an interesting video involving a kids party, was The Door, released as an EP in 1999. This was the track that caught my attention, and provided an interest in Turin Brakes. A fair paced song, with lyrics of irony melded with modern folk rock, and one of my favourite tracks on the album.
I love State of Things. It’s just such a brilliant track, it makes you feel alive, if acoustic can do that! It’s a very introspective song, with a quicker pace than the other tracks on the album, louder and slightly brasher with more drums. A slight change, if minimalist in that regard, the rest of the album.
The mellow mood returns with By TV Light, one acoustic and one electric guitar. It’s quite depressing I guess, much like most of their music. Much in the same vein as Jeff Buckley, for example, playing their guitars with emotion, talking through their music and dowsed in a depressive, lonely voice. Unlikely to make you want to kill yourself, but it does turn things sombre, and very much on their head, particularly after the upbeat antics of State of Things. The sort of song you’d play at a funeral if you wanted to ensure everyone was going to feel depressed.
The noise is increased with Slack, lifting you from the depressed nature of By TV Light, much like a wake up call. It’s very traditional song, with familiar riffs, a familiar drum beat and nothing really showing innovation or originality. We’ve heard similar songs before, and it’s one of those tracks that you think, “I’ve heard something similar, but that’s no bad thing”. It’s very reminiscent of Radiohead, and no doubt there has been some influence as it seems to show in the last minute or so of the track.
At 2 minutes and 47 seconds, Starship is very much a filler, or interval track. There isn’t anything redeemable or memorable about the track. Again, it reminds you of perhaps very much the slower Chili Peppers tracks, and is rather disappointing overall.
We’re in familiar acoustic land with The Road. The song on opening provides a comforting return to the better, earlier tracks that the disappointment of Starship ruined a bit. The gentle voices drifting over the beautifully played guitars, the lyrics lugubrious but sung with optimism. I love the introduction of the harmonica, and it’s disappointing they don’t use more of it.
The last two tracks are Mind Over Money, and the title track The Optimist. The former is a rockier, faster paced folk rock track, with brushes of vocal stretching and a gloomy and grim outlook lyrically. It brings about the finality of the end of the album quite well. The Optimist is a contrast in pace, but keeps the pensive attitude of the vocals, and is a two part track. The first part is harmonious and lenient. The second part begins after a couple of minutes with a vocal free acoustic set, which is rather abstract compared to the other tracks.
The Optimist doesn’t pretend to offer anything extensively new or refreshing. It was released during the time of the height of pop culture during 2001 and for that, it was quite refreshing. The only other alternatives I guess were the likes of The Corrs, but they are truly dire and harmful to what is good music. The Optimist is a very solid, mellow, acoustic effort with wonderfully easy voices and a real passion for something honest.
Verdict: An excellent example of great voices over acoustic guitars.
Track Listing
1. Feeling Oblivion
2. Underdog (Save Me)
3. Emergency 72
4. Future Boy
5. The Door
6. State Of Things
7. By TV Light
8. Slack
9. Starship
10. The Road
11. Mind Over Money
12. The Optimist