THE TWILIGHT SAD - It’s The Long Goodbye

A deafening silence, seven years of exhausting struggle against adversity but also against life's joys. James Graham had to face the loss of his mother, afflicted by dementia, just as he was savouring the joys of a new marriage and fatherhood, a period of emotional contrasts that reawakened old mental health issues.

Having tasted a fair degree of chart success and followed a triumphant tour supporting The Cure, it wasn't easy for Scotland's The Twilight Sad to absorb the harsh blow of the forced halt caused by their frontman's condition; only Andy McFarlane has remained at Graham's side, a loyal friend and the only other member of the band's current lineup. The grief over the loss of his mother and the murky Scottish nights live on in every sonic and lyrical crevice of "It's The Long Goodbye", a work that stands as a moving, visceral declaration of vulnerability. Graham confronts pain with the awareness of someone living through a situation anyone could identify with; sharing becomes a cathartic act, and the scarring epic of post-punk becomes a language of emotional purification and spiritual rebirth.

As direct as a high-speed train, both musically and lyrically, "It's The Long Goodbye" dispenses distortion and sordid rage from the very first breath of "Get Away From It All": every guitar chord and every line is delivered with pain and power, echoing until it builds a wall of sound dripping with sweat, blood and tears: "You're my mother because you're leaving me".

It's an energy already glimpsed on the single "Waiting For The Phone Call", one of three tracks featuring a contribution from Robert Smith. Graham wrestles with darkness, heedless of what lurks behind the unknown; the guitar riffs are mighty, almost impenetrable, yet ready to let an unsettling tenderness shine through.

Standing before death, looking it in the eye as it takes away your loved ones, is not only dramatic but devastating, and the response is often bitter, in a mix of sonic emotions that evoke both the darkest My Bloody Valentine ("Atttempt A Crash Landing-Theme") and the Cure of "Pornography" ("Dead Flowers"). Suffering and inspiration: a pairing that might sound routine, but for The Twilight Sad this sixth album is anything but easy. The dark folk gloom and the searing guitar sounds of "The Ceiling Underground" will echo for a long time in James Graham's memory - "Why does it feel like nothing is real? My head is full of other things I'll miss" - a reflection that weighs like a boulder.

Let's be clear, the new Twilight Sad album doesn't rewrite the band's playbook - the elements are the familiar ones: a shoegaze emphasis, noir melancholy, jarring electronics, intense vocals with that distinctive Scottish accent - but everything feels more visceral, more deeply felt. And the songs are among the most powerful they've ever written. The two musicians drafted in for the recordings also contribute to the final result, David Jeans (ex-Arab Strap) and Alex Mackay (Mogwai), but it's Robert Smith who acts as the glue holding the project together.

A raw, scarring post-punk energy is the thread that ties together the feverish urgency of "Designed To Lose" with the funereal liturgy of the splendid "TV People Still Throwing TVs At People" or with the furious outcry of "Inhospitable/Hospital", one of the album's most immediate tracks.

The Twilight Sad's music is like a shaft of light shattering the darkness ("Chest Wound To The Chest"), a heartrending declaration of love and pain: "I should never have been in this place... I just want to see you again...", sings James Graham, before retreating into memory on the more subdued "Back To Fourteen" ("mother, can I lie down and cry").

"It's The Long Goodbye" is a record to be handled with care, a collection of songs that burrow under the skin and caress the soul. Don't be surprised if a tear rolls down your cheek - The Twilight Sad have written an important chapter in their career, and this is one of those rare albums that will stay with you through many listens to come.

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01/04/2026