Album Review| Twin Atlantic| Great Divide

I listen to the radio every day in the shower. So mid-shampoo when Nick Grimshaw announced Twin Atlantic were back, I almost fell head first on to the taps with excitement.

But when ‘Brothers and Sisters’ echoed through my steamy bathroom I wasn’t overjoyed or overwhelmed.

I love Twin Atlantic. I always have, and I no doubt always will. It’s difficult when you have loved a band for years and they release an album that doesn’t quite tug on your heart-strings the same way as the last one did. It’s even more difficult that I don’t know if the band is out-maturing me, or if it’s me that is growing up.

Then I hit play on the whole album, I didn’t expect the same Scottish teenage angst we all had three years ago when they released their first album. But come to think of it; I didn’t know what to expect.

The album eases you in with ‘The Ones I Love’, which resembles the slow yet just as emotional Yes I was Drunk and gave me a twang of sadness that it wasn’t that song I was hearing for the first time.

By track two though… the boys were back. If you haven’t listened to the album, this is the one that you will already have heard, and without realising you’ll be singing along, quite the thing.

The album takes a slightly heavier turn with ‘Fall Into The Party’ and ‘Brothers and Sisters’. And while both solid songs, perhaps I wouldn’t have picked the latter as the first release.

It’s just as well the slower ballad ‘Oceans’ breaks up the next half of the album as it does get quite heavy, but there isn’t too much weight, it’s just your ear drums might need a break if you have the volume full blast.But with Twin Atlantic, listening quietly simply isn’t an option.

Cleverly named songs Cell Mate and Rest in Pieces are classic Twin Atlantic. And then the last song. Why Won’t We Change? After listening to that, you will agree Twin Atlantic might be asking he audience why they won’t change, but our answer is that they don’t need to change.

They aren’t perfect, and neither is their album Great Divide. But they are perfectly imperfect.

The album is like running your finger along an old familiar piece of furniture. It’s the same as it always has been, but now it’s older and you’re comfortable with it being there. There might be cracks in the wood, but you know it won’t give you splinters.




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