The Twilight Sad
Nobody Wants To Be Here And Nobody Wants To Leave
Reviewed by: Brian Roser
The name of this band is very well suited to their particular sound. This album is not about rainbows, sunshine and puppies. It’s more along the lines of gloomy despair, love shredded to useless rags, and the soul crushing loss of hope. For what it’s worth, though, they are really good at depressing music.
With song titles like “Drown So I Can Watch” and “Pills I Swallow”, not to mention lyrics including “you didn’t have to kill them all/ we’re falling/ we fall apart”, they are very obviously not trying to bring joy to your life. Then again, not all music has to be happy to be worthwhile. Frontman James Graham sings with deep emotion in his thick Scottish accent. Like the sound of pipes through a distant fog on the cold bank of a Scottish loch, it may be miserable, but there is an eerie beauty to it, too.
After producing their first four-track demo in 2005, the group is now up to album number four. The melodies are simple, yet evocative. The lyrics can be repetitive, but then so are sad thoughts in a melancholy mind.
Nobody Wants To Be Here And Nobody Wants To Leave is neither for the dance club, nor the road trip, or even the daily commute. It does have it’s time and place though. When the whiskey bottle is empty, the eyes are full of tears and the mind churns with thoughts of what went wrong, this album will bring you solace.
Rating: Listenable
