Not so long ago, I was less than enthusiastic in my review of Twin Atlantic's single, 'You're Turning Into John Wayne.' Now, I'm not exactly wracked with guilt over every review I write that's less than glowing, but there's a part of me that wondered, on receiving my copy of 'Vivarium,' if I hadn't been a little unfair.
The first track, 'Lightspeed,' is packed with meaty guitars and shouty vocals thick with a Glaswegian accent, and balances chunky rockisms with tunefulness. It's straight into 'Old Grey Face,' which has a stop/start verse that gives way to a chorus that's truly colossal, and bursts into all-out sonic mayhem in the mid section.
Having listened to this a fair few times now, I find Sam McTrusty's vocals to be something of an obstacle to my absolute enjoyment of Twin Atlantic. This is still perhaps most strongly evidenced on 'You're Turning Into John Wayne,' on which the guitars are backed off that little bit further, giving a more commercial edge but also pushing the vocals to the fore.
That said, in the scheme of all things emo, they're definitely at the ballsier end of the spectrum as opposed to the weak and whiney end, and are more Placebo or Moneen than they are Panic! At the Disco or Fallout Boy, and this is definitely a good thing.
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'Human After All' is built over a scaffold of a much choppier design, and in incorporating some quiet, more meandering passages within this tight, taught framework, gives the illusion of being much longer than its 4 and a half minute duration.
I might have ordinarily complained that with only 8 tracks and clocking in at only a couple of minutes over half an hour, that fans might feel short-changed. In actuality, Vivarium's brevity is a virtue, in that it doesn't outstay its welcome. Instead, 'Vivarium' stands as a succinct statement, its energy concentrated and focused rather than dissipated by excessive duration. Smart move.
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