Frontman Matt Berninger has teamed up with Brent Knopf of Menomena and Ramona Falls to form EL VY (apparently pronounced “el vie”, rhymes with “hell pie”). The duo plan to release their début album Return To The Moon on 4AD on the 30th of October.

The only song currently available is the title track, or, to give its snappy full name ‘Return To The Moon (Political Song For Didi Bloome To Sing, With Crescendo)’. Berninger’s vocals are as distinctive as ever, but the influence of Knopf sees the sound take a far poppier path than anything The National have put out. The song is strange and, like most of Berninger’s writing, uses specific imagery to create a sense of vague, imprecise meaning.

“Scratched a ticket with the leg of a cricket,
and I got triple Jesus.
Cashed it in for a siamese twin
at the family firing range.

Went to bed woke up in another man’s head
Nobody noticed.
I’m so excited the senators a fighter,
don’t tell me nothing’s changed.
Return to the moon, I’m dying.
Return to the moon, please.”

It’s more than enough to get us interested. You can pre-order the album now via 4AD.

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This idea made me think of the The Twilight Sad. The band have been labelled along a spectrum, from grumpy, dour Scots to a more extreme, probable-trauma-as-a-child sort of category. While it’s understandable that people will take what an artist presents as some clue as the nature of its creator (they have nothing else to go on, after all), to see albums or careers written off as miserable, aloof or frigid based on the artwork and some cherry-picked lyrics is not only unfair, but also missing the point quite spectacularly (FYI Lead James Graham has nice supportive parents). 

Nobody Wants to Be Here… is the The Twilight Sad’s fourth album. Their début, Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters, was a critically acclaimed masterpiece, but the others, all too often lumped in with the more saleable Frightened Rabbit and We Were Promised Jetpacks, were overlooked for the most part. Graham told The Skinny that the new record is an attempt “not to prove people wrong, but to prove people right,” and it is immensely pleasing to see that this does not mean conforming to a trend but working doubly hard at what TTS are best at.

‘There’s a Girl in the Corner’ opens on a familiarly unsettling vibe, the refrain “you’re not coming back, you’re not coming back from this” hinting at something awful. This indirect method of delivery continues across the album. To choose a few examples, ‘Last January’ is bitter and unrequited and creepy in a desperate way…

“I see you at night,
and I stare at you
You don’t care for me

Without the light,
I still glare at you,
look away from me”

…and ‘I Could Give You All That You Don’t Want’ mixes specific imagery with a dream-like fogginess…

“She said “Pray over there”
She sat and prayed over there
How dare you decide what’s right?
No, you won’t”

This continues throughout the album, until the final track, ‘Sometimes I Wished I Could Fall Asleep,’ a bleak love letter stripped back to the bare bones, just stark piano and Graham’s lyrics. The layers of metaphor are peeled back to produce what is the explicit song on the record, a simple, straight conclusion to what proves a complex piece of work.

The effect the indistinct writing is that of trying to view a disaster unfold through a keyhole, only opening the door once it is too late and the room is empty save for the hum in the air of residual violence or grief. Only Graham seems unable to fully accept what has happened out of sight and instead treads the thinnest, most ridiculous sliver of hope rather than lay down and unravel.

The moral of the album, looping right back around to Berninger and Ellis, is that dark music does not always make for miserable creators or listeners. I’m reminded of the line in Withered Hand’s ‘Religious Songs’, “how does he expect to be happy when he listens to death metal bands?” The Twilight Sad are excellent for the very reason that they deal with pain and darkness in an affirming way, opening up difficult, alienating emotions to show that we are all difficult, emotional aliens. And that we are these things together.

You can buy the album now from FatCat Records, The Twilight Sad’s website or their Bandcamp page.

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Producer Stewart Lerman and Boardwalk Empire music supervisor Randall Poster have put together a collection of prohibition-era hits with instrumentation from Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks. This record, which is actually the second volume (with the first winning a Grammy no less), features a wide range of guest vocals from well known faces – from The National and St. Vincent to Neko Case, Elvis Costello and Liza Minnelli. Members of the show’s cast also contribute, including Stephen DeRosa and Margot Bingham.

Poster, who has worked for a number of the top directors including Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson and Sam Mendes, says,

“Boardwalk Empire provides an incredible back drop for music.  It’s been a steady treat to mark the passing of time in song over the course of four seasons.

Terry Winters, Martin Scorsese and the entire Boardwalk Empire team inspire the sound of the episodes as we move from the streets and alleys of Atlantic City to the smoky rooms of Al Capone’s Chicago and on down into the tropics of Florida. This compilation celebrates the mastery of all the artists involved.”

You don’t have to be a fan of the show to appreciate this album. Where else are you going to find such a collection of heavyweight acts all in one place? I am by no means a connoisseur of 1920s music, but it sounds good to me. Check out The National covering Isham Jones below.

The soundtrack is out now on ABKCO Records

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The album is pretty diverse in sound, there are some simple sounding, more stripped back tracks (Earthquake), some manic 100mph tracks (Away) and there are larger, proper rock songs which build to noisy crescendos (Not Quite Dead). The lead’s baritone voice is reminiscent of some recent mediocre British bands (Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man, Editors etc.) but it’s use is much more effective than the Joy Division-esque posturing that is so familiar. I actually quite like Tom Smith’s (from Editors) voice, it could really be used to convey a foreboding, but the Editors’ songs never really utilised it properly. Young Jesus suffer no such worries, for example on ‘Family and Friends’ he uses the vocals to slowly build up to a loss of control comparable to Matt Berninger circa Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers. I’m a sucker for shouty screamy bits in songs, whether it be angry or desperate or cathartic, and Young Jesus deliver.

Home is available now on a pay-what-you-can basis. The temptation to give nothing is large but I’m sure they would appreciate any donation possible.

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