The Twilight Sad's third album, No One Can Ever Know, marked the beginning of me really struggling to get into their songs but really liking them at the same time. If you played me a song from this album or the one that followed, I'd probably not be able to tell you which was from which (their fifth and most recent album, is a little less punishing and a little more 80's, so easier to tell apart); when I have a craving for this era of The Twilight Sad, I play this and Nobody Wants to Be Here... in fairly equal measures, mainly because I've never decided which I prefer - they tick the same boxes.
It's a solid album - there are hints of their influences throughout - The Cure on Nil and Radiohead on Not Sleeping. It's also incredibly fucking dark, which says something given the albums that came before it - Sick is a pretty bleak example of this. The highlights are Dead City, where the vocals build gradually against the consistently dark and industrial music, and Kill it in the Morning which is strangely danceable; the abrupt ending is unexpected and a brilliant way to end the album.
There's no particularly interesting story about buying this one - I was in Banquet a couple of days after it came out and picked it up along with a Fucked Up 12" and a Q and Not U album. I had a voucher, which I applied across the purchases in my spreadsheet, hence the strange price listed below. Looking at Discogs, it seems that this has gone up in value a lot since it was released.
Format: Double 12", insert
Tracks: 9
Cost: £15.81 new
Bought: Banquet Records
When: 08/02/07
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code
