song of the day- The Twilight Sad 'That Summer, at home, I had become the invisible boy'

Despite the fact that I can barely stop playing Sun Kil Moon's 'April' album at the moment and consider it a masterpiece in the art of songwriting (I'm particularly bewitched by the creepy, tightrope walk of 'Heron Blue' at the moment), today's 'song of the day'* is 'That Summer, At Home, I Had Become The Invisible Boy' by The Twilight Sad.

The Sad are great. They remind me of two things I like very much: Scotland....and Anger. Scotland, Edinburgh in particular, is one of my favourite places in the World and no-one sings in a broader Scottish accent than The Sad's singer James Graham and...well, come on, we all enjoy a bit of anger.

'Last Summer...' is simply glorious. Opening with a pounding drum beat, the first 90 seconds is all simmering aggression and it builds, and builds until it becomes a magnificent wall of sound, white noise and fury. I have previously compared The Twilight Sad to The Proclaimers backed by My Bloody Valentine, but in truth no comparison does them justice: to make a song sound this angry, this furious, this demented, but still keep a lovely melody going is a work of true genius. It is cold and brutal but somehow, at the same time, warm and engaging.

I play this song when I'm angry. Its a song to play loud, almost until your ears bleed. I play it when I am thinking about the people who have wronged me, or when I am full of righteous indignation at slow people in the fast lane at the swimming pool, as I swim past them and think "why don't you go in the bloody slow lane?", I hear James Graham in my head singing "and they're plotting behind your baaaaack". Yes they are James.

The best thing of all is that the next song on the album, 'Walking For Two Hours' is equally brilliant. It conjurs up images of long cold hikes in Scottish hills, walking for miles without seeing another human being. It is as cold as ice. It also makes me think of Dalry Swim Centre, the best swimming pool in the world.

There you are then, The Twilight Sad....absolutely brilliant.

If you do not already own their album 'Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters', you must be mad, but luckily you can read about it, buy it and hear tracks that will make your hair curl here..

http://fat-cat.co.uk/fatcat/release.php?id=221