Turin Brakes
Ether Song

THE REVIEW

Olly Knight and Gale Paradganian are the Turin Brakes, a folk-acoustic duo who rose to fame with the overrated "The Optimist LP," a self-produced album.

While the first record left... bewildered, the second one demonstrates greater artistic maturity and begins to give us a glimpse of their artistic vision composed of simple sounds, as acoustic as possible, almost "Unplugged".

This makes it timeless. Without placement. Just simple hints here and there.

In this context, the voice becomes almost an instrument, a bit drawn out sometimes, even evoking similarities with Travis or Tom Yorke.

"I let somebody get under my skin,
Long distance losing is all that I've seen,
Now there's a river,
Now there's a river"

These are the words of "Long Distance," perhaps the most beautiful and poignant song on the album, the first single.

"Summer rain, dripping down your face again
Summer rain, praying someone feels the same
Take the pain killer, cycle on your bicycle
Leave all this misery behind"

Taken from "Pain Killer," the second single, another lovely ballad from the album which is overall pleasant, less boring than the previous one.

The song that opens the album, "Blue Hour," is also beautiful. "Little Brother" reminds me a bit of something from Pink Floyd, like "Dark Side Of The Moon".

An album perhaps released in the wrong season. It should be listened to on summer evenings, watching the starry sky, reflecting, dreaming, fantasizing. When the cosmos becomes our personal cinema where we project our favorite memories, biting our lips, smelling the air.

Hoping to see a shooting star and being able to make childish wishes...

Simple.