ALBUM REVIEW: TURIN BRAKES – LOST PROPERTY

7/10

ALBUM REVIEW:  TURIN BRAKES - LOST PROPERTY

Turin Brakes release their 8th Studio Album, Lost Property on 29th January 2016. Always evolving, the London duo-come-quartet strive to do something new with each release and Lost Property is no exception.

Often compared to the likes of Elbow and Starsailor, the boys have come back with a big sound which really sets them apart. The LP is littered with choral vocals and orchestral strings between Olly’s androgynous vocals and the band’s signature guitar picking and walking bass-lines. The resulting sound flits effortlessly from gospel, to pop, to country creating a foot tapping sing-along fest from start to finish.

There’s a good mixture of happy and uplifting numbers and more serious tracks. Standing out is the poppy and reminiscent Rome with it’s happy feel and catchy, soaring chorus guaranteed to pull you out of whichever hole you’re in by the time you’re listening to the bridge. It’s immediately followed with Brighter than the Dark which opens with a fast paced jazz intro, before sliding into a misleadingly slow, plodding and chord driven verse. They wake the listener up from their ensuing trance with a massive, choral a-capella Our Hearts and cleverly jumping back into that jazz piece again. It winds up to the finish with the bass and drums dancing around some cleverly orchestrated strings.

The gospel-esque Save You is big and primarily vocal-driven. Olly blasts out the lyrics “Time will save you, you don’t need to save yourself” bolstered by simple strings and epic drums it will have you singing along by the second chorus. Cleverly breaking the sound up, this is immediately followed this with the light and happy little country-picking styled Martini.

This clever interspersion of pace and style keeps your ears interested from start to end, in fact my only misgiving with this method is that they end on a more depressing track in the form of Black Rabbit. While the song does build at the end, my personal view would be they should have finished with something a little more upbeat like Jump Start.

Lost Property is a perfectly good album and I really like it, but it’s not exactly ground-breaking stuff. While I don’t think it will be starting fires, or beating the UK #5 chart position of 2003’s Pain Killer (Summer Rain) I do think it’s possible we’ll see a song or two from it in the charts this year, mind you, I’m no soothsayer so anything’s possible!

Avatar for Thomas S. Day
Thomas S. Day 93 Articles
Fav Band: Bombay Bicycle Club Fave Album: Black Holes And Revelations - Muse Email: tom@xsnoize.com

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