Description
2021 reissue, 2×12″ LP, Two Piers Records. Black vinyl edition.
When the website, Drowned In Sound, reviewed Turin Brakes’s debut album back in 2001, the critic tasked with penning words for cash went in at the deep end with the opening paragraph. What was then being rather cringe-worthily dubbed, NAM, or the New Acoustic Movement, was, in their eyes, “the single greatest, most-horrific crime of the 21st century.” You’ll have to scour for interviews with the band around that time to figure out whether they considered themselves part of the ‘movement’ but clearly the DiS reviewer did not, or at least saw them as a country mile better than the others involved in the scene. The Optimist tells us everything we need to know about why and how differentiations were made. It’s gentle but commanding, poignant and incredibly musical, owing much to the likes of Jeff Buckley and father Tim. – Juno