Turin Brakes - Ether Song (2003)

Since their first release on Anvil Records way back in 1999, Ollie Knights and Gale Paridjanian's Turin Brakes has enjoyed a meteoric rise, making the short list for Best Newcomer at the annual British Music Industry awards before underlining the not inconsiderable sales of their inaugural full-length, The Optimist, with a Mercury nomination shortly afterwards. Notably, they didn't win, but both assisted in building a groundswell of support into a veritable force majeure which resulted in this sophomore follow-up cracking open the U.K. Top Ten on the week of its release. While their aforementioned debut revelled in its low fidelity, the pair chose to draft in Tony Hoffer -- accomplished producer for such notables as Air and Beck -- for Ether Song. The resultant album builds considerable muscle to the skeletal frailty of intricate guitar work while commendably maintaining all that was good from their debut. The opening "Blue Hour" sets the tone for the rest of the album, a sprawling analogue introduction brought into focus through the fret skills of Paridjanian, before Knights' angelic vocal appears like an apparition from the aural fog. Obvious singles "Painkiller" and "Long Distance" echo the singalong sensibilities of previous hits "Emergency 72" and "Underdog," but there is much, much more here -- Hoffer having evidently oiled the screechy little Brakes -- "Panic Attack" conjuring up the paranoiac side of Syd Barrett as "Little Brother" rocks like The Optimist never quite managed to. Despite these diversions however, it is the softly spoken cuts which make for the highlights with "Full of Stars" and the closing "Ether Song," both stunning examples of a band that still have more to offer