The Twilight Sad: Killed My Parents And Hit The Road

Few bands these days display true emotion through their music. Bright Eyes do it well and Brand New have been known to reduce a grown man to a crumpled, blubbering heap. Another name to add to the list then; The Twilight Sad.

Their latest CD, lovingly titled Killed My Parents And Hit The Road, is a compilation of live tracks, covers and unreleased songs that were released to "aid the band on their tour with Mogwai". Nice, honest boys; that's what we like.

Happily though, the album is a welcome treat and gives us great insight into the atmosphere the band can craft with their live shows. Cold Days From The Birdhouse sounds ridiculously huge with James Graham�€�s vocals adding to the chaos with his deep, Scottish husk overlapping the train-wreck drawn behind.

The Smiths cover of Half A Person is rendered beautifully here and almost suits the accent that is so unmistakably present on this version. It achieves the task of showing the quiet side of The Twilight and is perhaps one of the best acoustic songs to reach this reviewer's ears in some time.

Unfortunately, some of the songs from the album sound too tinny to fully appreciate which is a slight shame considering that, even though it doesn�€�t consistently annoy, it does hinder some of the tracks. The Joy Division cover of Twenty-Four Hours sounds fantastic but half of it is barely audible due to how loud it�€�s being played and the recording equipment involved. This niggle though, is nothing but a tiny scratch on this otherwise brilliant release and is almost omisable due to the talent on show here.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs cover is short, acoustic and sweet whereas final track I Was Hoping The Winter Was Over is a twinkling instrumental send-off which compliments the last remaining moments of the album.

From their creativeness to the emotion that this band consistently displays throughout this complilation, it�€�s almost impossible not to recommend picking this one up before the Christmas period is over. It�€�s cold, unforgiving and slightly brutal but it�€�s also a mesmerising display of emotion recorded live and captured in time, for your pleasure.