We’ve seen it before, umpteen times, and with a variety of bands of varying nature and design; 17 years in the music industry is an underestimated period of length, and often times, artists find themselves retreading previous trends and past material in hopes of doing enough just to keep afloat. Having been in the business since 1999, Turin Brakes are not one of those bands. Instead of chugging away at the same, three quarters-empty cup of sound as many bands with the same tenure would find themselves doing, Olly Knights, Gale Paridjanian, Rob Allum, and Eddie Myer still feel like they’re going on a musical journey. As has been the standing trend with the band for a considerable length of time that they have been around thus far, their latest, Lost Property, comes across as their most evolved work yet.
The album begins with a driving electric riff on ’96’, a funky, amicably pop-oriented melody driving a conscious lyric not unlike a lost track of Blur’s, but with more oomph. It’s by the third track, ‘The Quiet Ones’, that you begin to realize in full that Turin Brakes are still fully capable of taking their listeners on a journey, opening with not much more than a good verse of world-weary a cappella before evolving into a rollicking rock number. Things really culminate once you hit centre with the commercially-viable ‘Rome, which feels like a radio hit right down to its very bones. Ultimately, Knights, Paridjanian, Allum, and Myer have put their backs into yet another impeccably solid release. Lost Property and its many avenues of sonic wonder are not to be missed.
Words: Jonathan Frahm