IN REVIEW: Twin Atlantic - "Transparency"

 

From humble alt-rock beginnings upon formation 15 years or so ago, Twin Atlantic have flirted with different levels of mainstream concession most of their career. Upon gaining a sizeable fan base performing a kind of Biffy Clyro cosplay on their home turf (Scotland, as anyone who's heard singer/guitarist Sam McTrusty will easily assertain), they developed their sound to include the occasional big pop hook or plaintive ballad on their 2014 breakthrough Great Divide. They then steered toward a more muscular sound on the underrated GLA in 2017 before releasing the much more pop-centric Power just a couple of months before the world fell into a pandemic-induced stupor.

Twin Atlantic's sixth album, then, arrives as we're all still trying to make sense of it all; this is just as true for McTrusty as the rest of us, as Transparency was created in a whirlwind of plague times, fatherhood, Brexit and a host of other adversities, not the least of which being the departure of the group's drummer (leaving Twin Atlantic officially a duo as of this writing). Leading off with all of this in mind, Keep Your Head Up starts the album on a sullen, reflective tone before veering wildly into the weird dance-rock of One Man Party, a track that defies pretty much everything they've done to this point with McTrusty's anxious ranting, jaunty guitar and overblown beat.

To be clear, there isn't all that much on Transparency that feels like a logical progression, even from the synth-pop blowout of Power just two years ago; Get Famous almost gets there, but its chorus goes hard in the red and rocks harder than it has any right to. The rollercoaster continues with Young, which feels like The Killers from a warped, Scottish alternate universe before the first half winds down with the ballad Haunt, an oddly mixed track with background chatter and overblown vocals that ensure the song can't become a hit by mistake; tellingly, though, it's the first song on the record that really falls flat, a decent accomplishment considering how many directions it's pulled in to this point.

The second half finds more retro-leaning influences creeping in, namely funk and soul; a slinky guitar ushers in Dance Like Your Mother, a song that also features some screamed/growled backing vocals, some funky riffs and an easy beat to bob along to. Dirty ups the fun factor with a more four-on-the-floor beat that's peppered with percussive flourishes, as well as some hooks within hooks, the least engaging of which is ironically its chorus. This is followed by early single Bang On the Gong, which didn't take long after its release to grow on me, featuring a cursing, frustrated, very Scottish woman narrating her irritation at what's happening in this batshit insane tour de force of weird sounds and serotonin-coaxing funk rock akin to Queens of the Stone Age's Smooth Sailing dripping with neon sweat. It can only go down from there, and Twin Atlantic knows it, so this immediately and jarringly segués into the stark piano ballad It's Getting Dark. Things pick up again for Instigator, another attitude-soaked, '80s-indebted bop that acts as a musical summary of sorts, incorporating much of the groove and bombast that punctuated the previous half hour.

First impressions of Transparency place it as Twin Atlantic's loosest, most freewheeling record, one that seemingly aims to act as a shimmering, upbeat distraction from the maelstrom of frustration that is 2020s Earth while saving room for a few heartfelt and contemplative moments. It also prioritizes personal appeal to that of the mainstream; even in its poppiest moments, it never feels like a concession or a cop-out. Having said that, Transparency, in all its defiance and weirdness offers more immediate thrills than the majority of previous efforts. Even if it doesn't hold up to their best works in terms of consistency or commercial viability, its manic energy, off-the-cuff commentary and anxiety-riddled undertones make it perhaps the Twin Atlantic album that's most in tune with the times it's been released into.

January 7, 2022 • Staple Diet/Believe

Highlights Keep Your Head Up • Bang On the Gong • Instigator