The Twilight Sad - No One Can Ever Know

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

The Twilight Sad - Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters

I've been listening to The Twilight Sad for nearly ten years, and I still don't feel like I know their albums that well. I love their albums, but they're so dense and difficult that I've found that I've never really broken my way into any of them. That's not a criticism; in fact I think it's actually a part of their charm. I've seen them play this album in full, and I still don't feel I know it that well.

I was introduced to the band by my old housemate Nicky, but then bought the Here, It Never Snowed. Afterwards It Did EP which contained reworked versions of nearly half these songs. I then bought the limited Killed My Parents and Hit the Road cd, which featured live versions of some of these songs (and a cover of Modern Romance by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, which works incredibly well). I eventually got the album on a trip to Avalance Records in Edinburgh the Monday after a stag weekend. Despite knowing versions of a lot of the songs, I was still treated to a heavy wall of dense sound; at times both welcoming and unwelcoming. There are a couple of definite highlights, but I can never really remember which songs they actually are. Looking at the lyrics online, I think Cold Days From the Birdhouse and Mapped By What Surrounded Them are the ones I always really look forward to on this album.

The first time I saw the band was quite an experience - they were supporting Mogwai in Brixton Academy and the singer paced the stage side-on to the crowd the whole time, almost entranced by his own microphone. I thought they were great; Sarah was unimpressed and has never become a fan. I think there's something about their particular style of shoegaze that people either love or hate.

In 2014, the debut album was reissued on vinyl for Record Store Day, along with a bonus disc of demos from the time. I'd bought the first two albums on cd for some reason, so was pleased to get this one on vinyl, and the demos were a great addition. That was my first RSD at Truck Store, having moved to Oxford a week beforehand, and it was a particularly strong year - there were a bunch of must-haves and this was definitely one of them for a lot of people.

The package is nice, with the second LP in a separate sleeve kept together in a plastic wallet and with an appropriately stripped down version of the artwork. The songs all have obtuse titles, much like on the split demo cassette with Frightened Rabbit from three years beforehand. They're great to hear and most of these demos are non-album songs, which is nice. Untitled #4 and 2d are particularly good songs.

Format: Double 12", two sleeves, picture sleeve, 24"x24" poster
Tracks: 17
Cost: £27 new
Bought: Truck Store, Oxford
When: 19/04/14
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

The Twilight Sad - Here, It Never Snowed. Afterwards It Did

This EP was my introduction to The Twilight Sad. My housemate Nicky had been telling me about them and shortly later I found this record in Spillers during the Tuesday-Record-From-Spillers year. I figured it was certainly worth chancing £8 on it. I'd always assumed the EP came first and the songs were re-worked for the debut LP,  Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters, but it turns out it was the other way around (evidently in the 7 years since I bought it I've never once read their Wikipedia page). I've never consciously listened out for the differences, but there's certainly a different feel to the songs - somehow quieter and moodier.

The two new songs are both pretty nice. The second is a cover of Some Things Last a Long Time by Daniel Johnston, an artist I'm yet to write about on here. I have a couple of his albums and they rarely get played - it doesn't make for very easy listening (so it's appropriate that The Twilight Sad would cover him). Some Things Last a Long Time was one of the Daniel Johnston songs I always enjoyed more, mostly for the simple play on words around "Your picture is still / Still on my wall"; everyone talks about the simple naivety in his songs and that's great example. The cover here is particularly nice.

I became a fan of the band from hearing this EP (partly thanks to Nicky, partly thanks to Spillers for stocking it around the time he mentioned it) and it's been pretty rewarding; their albums are dense and dark and I feel like I have to make a real effort to get into them, but I like that and it's always a rewarding process. I've also seen them live a bunch of times since, which is always a great experience. A good introduction to a great band.

Format: 12"
Tracks: 6
Cost: £8 new
Bought: Spillers, Cardiff
When: 05/08/08
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

The Twilight Sad - I Became a Prostitute

I often go through periods where I don't really bother buying 7" records, and other periods where I buy them quite a lot. Sometimes they just seem quite expensive when you only really get two songs, one of which is on an album I either own or will end up buying. I can count on one hand the number of times I bothered going through the 7" records in Spillers whilst I lived in Cardiff, but on one of those occasions I found a bunch of records I quite fancied and bought them all. One of the records was this 7" from The Twilight Sad's second album (which either wasn't out yet or I hadn't bought yet).

I'll save the story of how I got into The Twilight Sad for another time, but I quite fancied hearing some new songs of theirs and £3 seemed like a reasonable price to pay for that. I Became a Prostitute is certainly one of the catchier and darker songs on Forget the Night Ahead and makes for a good single (although more because of it's catchiness, not how dark it is). The b-side In the Blackout is slower and less accessible (not that their music is particularly accessible the rest of the time) but not quite so memorable. A nice enough 7", and kept me happy until the new Twilight Sad album came along, but not a forgotten gem in my collection.

Format: 7"
Tracks: 2
Cost: £3 new
Bought: Spillers Records, Cardiff
When: 08/08/09
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no