Forget the Night Ahead

The cover art for The Twilight Sad’s second full-length release says it all: raw dread and emotional angst ahead! In that regard, it’s not much of a change from the group’s debut, <i>Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters</i>, and we’re okay with that. Singer James Graham is still in firm control while exorcising his various personal demons, and where the debut opaquely pointed to a not-terribly-happy childhood, <i>Forget the Night</i> is more about recent loss and regret. A haze of discordant guitars and feedback drifts through the album. “Reflection of the Television” pings back and forth between shadowy, Cure-like atmospherics and the menacing, harder edge of noisemakers like Slint or Mogwai. “I Became a Prostitute” comes close to a pop melody, though the guitars are gracefully aflame like falling embers. “Seven Years” opens with a reedy guitar sound that conjures Sonic Youth. The Twilight Sad is maturing quite nicely, with its music feeling more surefooted and focused. The band’s careful distillation and filtering of all that’s come before is clearly key to its expansive sound.