Black Beauty – The Twilight Hours (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

A quick flick through the The Twilight Hours family tree will give you a few pointers as to what is probably going to come your way over the course of this sophomore album. More than that debut Stereo Night signposted the way to a sound, which combines 50’s doo-wop harmonies and coffee house acid-folk, tied to a 60’s dye-tied, hippy pop sound and just a hint of chilled late night folk-rock. But where as the first record erred a touch to the melancholic side, this time around, even when tugging heartstrings and dwelling on life’s regrets they manage to do so in a more positive and reflective manner.

But if the lyrics have become more palatable, the song writing was always pretty much in place. Confident melodies, bright, rich harmonies, clean limbed and unfussy production and a sound that plays around in the territory of a bare boned Beach Boys sound. You know… the early stuff when Brian Wilson was still a team player and could roll out commercial, Day-Glo pop seemingly at will, before he became a bonefide genius and the trouble really began.

It is pretty much an unexpected sound, but pleasantly so, to find in todays music pile, mixing as it does obvious pastel pastiches, classic crooning and hippy dreamtime sounds, albeit with just enough hard edge electric guitar to push it into new territories and certainly not what you would expect coming from a city more associated with Husker Du and The Replacements. Maybe Prince really did leave something in the musical DNA of the place.