Turin Brakes - Outbursts

Turin Brakes
Outbursts

Folking heaven, or folking hell? It’s more a case of the former for Turin Brakes, who have aimed to rekindle their abilities circa 2001 when they released The Optimist LP, a groundbreaking offering which saw them pick up a nomination for the Mercury Music Prize of that year (only to be usurped by PJ Harvey, though it was all about Felt Mountain that year. Mini-rant over).

Either way, Outbursts is an interesting offering. Caught up somewhere between elements of folk, rock, acoustic and prog, it’s not quite clear what Olly Knights and Gale Paridjanian are aiming for as a duo. Nonetheless, it’s not disagreeable, though it’s not giving us the hooks we so desperately crave to get into a band who looked like they could’ve captured the hearts and minds of the world, never mind the UK. That’s not to say it’s bad, by any means.

Opening track ‘The Sea Change’ is a strong enough opener and perhaps the natural choice as the first single from the new album. It embraces an acoustic guitar as well as a keen bass kick – one that was perhaps last heard on ‘Tell Me Ma’ by one-hit wonders Sham Rock in 1998. It just kinda works. There’s bongo playing that the Queen Mother would’ve been proud of, a string quartet that  knows how to capture the emotion that Olly and Gale can’t quite cover, as well as a lingering riff that hits the spot.

From there, the offering melts into an interesting array of sounds and, strangely, sights. It’s the stuff of dreams for someone who is sat, as I am now, relaxing on a Sunday afternoon with little more to do. It conjures up images galore and makes you desire a chair with a little bit of flex in its structure for you to rock it casually as you sip a gin and tonic or a non-alcoholic equivalent.

The addition of strings is perhaps one of the most welcome in the entire effort; for example, ‘Rocket Song’ really benefits from the emotional rollercoaster of the tune, despite the lyrics being a little unforgiving in terms of unoriginality, describing love as the aforementioned propelled object. Olly still gives it his all, though; it’s hard to doubt that the words he writes are embraced with gusto.

Vocals are generally fine in Outbursts; however, I had to check for the inevitable comparison between Turin Brakes and Flight of the Conchords, which was correctly identified by musicOMH as rearing its ugly head in ‘Embryos’. The guys there aren’t wrong – there’s definitely a lot of Bret in there. Still, that’s not necessarily bad. Those who shrug their shoulders at folk can get lazy in making that comparison, so I figure I can add myself to that list. Sorry everyone.

One of the best songs on Outbursts, though one which will likely go unnoticed, is penultimate track ‘Radio Silence’. It’s infused with the prog rock approach of Rush – a slow yet unmistakably powerful piece of guitar work which only really gets going after a short pause with a minute and a half to go. The lyrics, superfluous as they could be, really match the song wonderfully and it gives listeners something to look forward to if going through it from start to finish.

‘Will Power’ is probably the only truly annoying song on the album. This is mainly down to the fact it sounds like a slightly slowed-down version of ‘With or Without You’ by U2, which is a black mark against anyone’s name. Seriously, try singing the lyrics to Bono’s effort over the top of it; the chorus allows it to fit perfectly for the most part. This also, by definition, makes it pretty unoriginal.

Despite the lack of impact from Outbursts that we had with The Optimist LP, it’s a bit crass to make that comparison anyway. After all, the guys aren’t going to pounce on the public this time around; their success is anticipated. And for all intents and purposes, Outbursts has Turin Brakes do what they do best: attractive, relaxed music with enough diversity and passion to prove to fans that they’re not out of ideas yet.

By Matt Gardner

Outbursts is hitting shops on March 1st on Cooking Vinyl.