Outbursts

It has been more than ten years since Turin Brakes released their first record. The anniversary was a time for celebration and reflection - a reminder of how far the South London duo have come and of what made them such a great act in the first place. It was also time to make a new album, a process that has brought Olly Knights and Gale Paridjanian full circle. Having redefined the acoustic pop genre with their debut album, The Optimist LP, which was short-listed for the Mercury Music Prize in 2001, the pair went on to release a string of superlative collections that saw them gradually expand on their original sound and vision. By the time of their last album, Dark On Fire, produced by Ethan Johns (Ryan Adams, Kings of Leon etc), the acoustic troubadours had turned into a fully-fledged, plugged-in, soft-rock band. Now, with their new album, Outbursts, Olly and Gale have rediscovered the working practices that got them started in the first place, and with it their old sense of mission. Written, produced and (for the most part) performed entirely by the two of them, Outbursts is a collection of songs that returns to the essence of Turin Brakes, and not only echoes the quiet, edgy genius of their most celebrated work, but surpasses it. Outburst's opening track and lead radio single The Sea Change is a patchwork of nimble, twinkling acoustic guitar lines. The lyric avoids grand, windy rhetoric. Instead, it relentlessly counts down, like a ticking time-bomb, from the concerns of six billion people to those of just one individual - which are, of course, exactly the same.