Turin Brakes
The Optimist LP
[Astralwerks]
Rating: 7.7
These guys are trying to trick me. I'll bet they're really Irish folkies
singing pretty little acoustic ballads. They're so earnest! How can I truly
enjoy earnest? I already know what's going to happen: I'm going to recommend
them, maybe play them for friends, and then be mocked as a sucker. "What is
this Indigo Guys crap?" they'll all say, and I'll be banished from the halls
of cool forever. Sure, I never belonged to begin with, but at least I once
mouthed all the right prejudices and espoused all the right decadences. And
I didn't listen to folky Irish singer/songwriters. They're trying to con me,
these Turin Brakes.
Okay, they're English, but what's the difference? If it's on an island and
it's acoustic guitars, it's either Francis Dunnery or Don Ho. Regardless,
they've seduced me. Gale Paridjanian's smile beams from the back of the
disc. And it's a hell of a smile. It melts my cynical heart. Ollie Knights'
vocals mix Jeff Buckley moan and Marc Bolan hiss. The songs are simple,
emotional, and earnest (I am such a fool!), and they're laden with Everly
Brothers (or is it the Indigo Girls?) harmonies. The production captures the
acoustic guitars in clean, highly polished amber with spare rhythm, letting
the songs well up. Dear me, it's a pretty album, with a melancholy that's--
of course-- unaffected. It has a softness that soothes without deflating.
The lyrics are often simple. The chorus of "Underdog (Save Me)" goes, "Save
me from myself." Sure, it's trite, but the harmonies make the desperation
fresh and beautiful. On "State of Things," over a loping rhythm, they sing,
"You and me/ Used to be on fire," capturing the mournful feeling of dying
passion. The song drowns in regret beneath Knights' Buckley-like croon. I say
Buckley-like because he's not actually aping, just finding some of the same
chilling notes the Mystery White Boy wrested from some cosmic place. "The
Road" has that same effect, and in a more uptempo vein, so does "Emergency
72." This song follows a well-worn descending progression, but Knights leaps
from note to note delightfully. His articulation also emphasizes what a nice
string of consonants and vowels is the number 72. Seventy-TWO! Seventy-TWO!
Seventy-TWO! What other good numbers are there out there to write songs
about? How about 806? Eight hundred and SIX! That would rock.
"Future Boy" does use the word "yonder." I've got you, Irish folkies! They
slip away from that folk trap with images of science fiction and social
decay. It includes the requisite "junkies/monkeys" rhyme, and the simple
truth that "Syphilis is a bitch but contracting HIV is much worse," which is
pretty hard to argue with. The song tells the story of a time traveler who
goes back to rescue himself as a baby. Nice one.
"Slack" manages a midtempo rock, but "Starship" and "By TV Lights" drag.
The latter ends with a mélange of TV sounds in the trail-off, reminiscent of
Simon & Garfunkel's (who I also suspect are Irish, or from the 60's) "Silent
Night/Six O'Clock News." This could be incriminating evidence, but of course,
I also like Simon & Garfunkel, so file that away for context.
After the beautifully sad harmonies of "The Optimist" comes a bonus
track. Hey, artists, we've been on to this tactic since "Train in Vain."
Just list the tracks, already. For the record, it's a pretty, go-nowhere
instrumental. The disc also includes a video for your computer. As we were
often told in the 80's, video is the future for musicians, although it's more
closely linked-- since we're all digital in the digital field, such bundling
is inevitable, even after the compact disc goes the way of the acetate. When
will the future Me come back in time and whisk the present Me to a world
where these videos are worth a damn?
After a spell of listening to The Optimist LP, I shamefully boarded a
plane to Ireland. There, on the green, grassy runway, were two young men
playing acoustic guitars. Sure enough, it was Turin Brakes. I grabbed one--
it was Gale Paridjanian-- shook him and demanded, "Are you trying to con me?
I really like your songs, but are they going to bore the pants off of my
millions of readers?"
Paridjanian answered, "No, it's the real deal. Sure, we're secretly Irish
folkies, but we threw in some drums and the songs will stay good. Enjoy
yourself." Then he smiled, and I melted.
-Dan Kilian