Transparency

Twin Atlantic

I was a big fan of Twin Atlantic at the earlier part of their career. I thought Vivarium and Free were pretty exciting rock records; a breakthrough considering that bands who were sticking to 'meat and potatoes' rock sounds around this time all sounded incredibly stale. What made the band special in my mind was the way frontman and guitarist Sam McTrusty and lead guitarist Barry McKenna worked together. McKenna brought a lot of melody and memorable guitar leads, while McTrusty brought a lot of charisma and eccentricity to his vocal approach, the way he played guitar, and no doubt on the songwriting front. Their chemistry together brought something new to the table; a strong case that I would often use to counter the tired claim that 'rock is dead.' For whatever reason though, I lost touch with the band over the years. Three albums passed and two members of the band have stepped away from their duties, one of which was McKenna. I decided to get caught up with the band by listening to their new record Transparency. Almost immediately, you can tell a lot has changed, and not necessarily for the better.

The larger-than-life, arena rock anthems that I know them for have been exchanged for dance punk jams that belong in dingy, underground clubs. The problem, however, is that there are no jams to be found. The soaring and impassioned vocals from McTrusty have almost all been replaced by this talk singing delivery. It has a lot of swagger, but ultimately gets quite old after a short while. McTrusty's eccentricities are still peppered all throughout this album, but more often than not do his wacky ideas leave me scratching my head. One example is the awful throat shredding in the background of Dance Like Your Mother. It is so out of place and distracting, I don't know how anyone thought this was a good idea. Another puzzling moment happens on the record's opening track; let me set it up. We have a track in which McTrusty (through his lyrics) is trying to help guide someone who's going through a really tough time. At one point, he kind of rattles off a series things that keep one up at night: "money, worries, money, bills, dying, money." I get that he's trying to be blunt and dramatic, but in no way are these lines delivered in any sort of musical way, nor do they have the impact that McTrusty was probably aiming for.

I did happen to like one track on here, and that was One Man Party. This one is actually quite fun with some of the soulful background vocals, McTrusty injecting a little melody in between cool raps, the odd sounds incorporated into the track, and the revving nature of the bass as well as some of the vocals in the chorus. But even this track isn't without its flaws. When all the elements come together in the chorus, there is unpleasant buzzing, clicks, and pops all over the place. It's good, but it could have been great; like a fun cut from Ima Robot's debut. Overall though, I'm not digging this at all. A lot of the qualities that made the band so special to me seem like distant things of the past now. I wish to see a return to form from the band as I don't think this style is working very well for them. However, if they want to continue to try new things and shake things up, I wouldn't begrudge that at all.