The Twilight Sad, an electronic-post-punk-noise-indie-folk-rock trio hailing from Kilsyth, Scotland, released their most subdued album to date in February, trading in their trademark “wall of sound” for more measured industrial textures. No One Can Ever Know revealed real change, progress, and experimentation at work within the band. Now other acts have added their own touch to the mesmerizing record. Ending a successful year by revisiting their mostly acclaimed album, The Twilight Sad have handed their songs “Sick,” “Nil,” “Not Sleeping,” and “Alphabet” off to fellow artists Liars, The Horrors, Warsnare, Breton, Ambassadeurs, Com Truise, and Brokenchord to cut up, rearrange, and decorate for No One Can Ever Know: The Remixes.
Though billed as a Twilight Sad album, as loops of vocals and instruments generated by the band are, of course, present, those remixing deserve much of the credit for the “new” recordings. The heavy brogue of lead singer James Graham makes only limited appearances throughout and is often barely audible. While No One Can Ever Know relied on its opaque lyrics, its Remixes counterpart is all about the music. Frequently the re-imagined pieces are more aurally interesting than the original tracks, expanding the songs’ possibilities with numerous squealing sonic additions and alterations. The record in no way is a mere rehashing of No One Can Ever Know though it does grow more wearing more quickly than its source album ever did.
No One Can Ever Know: The Remixes sounds exactly as its name suggests. For those who dig artsy remixes, who enjoy choppy electro-pop with a constant clop of beats and a meandering blur of beeps, the album should be more than acceptable. None of the remixes awkwardly stand out as particularly bad. Some in fact, such as Breton’s Frankenstein recreation of “Nil,” are rather impressive.
Cumulatively, however, the record grates and in the end seems baffling, undeserving of a full release. Any of the so-called LP’s nine tracks could have been made available for free on The Twilight Sad’s website. This is a collection of curious robotic play for fans of the band belonging in the “Die Hard” column and remix junkies looking for a decent fix, presenting significantly repackaged songs that perhaps were better left alone.
Grade: C+
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