Artist: Civil Twilight
Label: EMI Records
Release: 2010
Length: 67:58
Rating: 2.5/5
Enter the alternative rockers Civil Twilight, originally from South Africa and Cape Town, who a few years back moved their whole operation to, of all places, Los Angeles and the USA. They grew up under heavy the influence of bands like U2, so it won’t come as a surprise if fans of the Irish band get fired up about them, along with anyone who loves anything that smells of Coldplay. They often rescue a given situation with classic piano or sound collages coaxed out with guitar effects, and just as often they jolt the motif phrases awake with lively rhythm section transitions, so drawing parallels with bands like Radiohead (especially the energy in the quiet passages) and Muse isn’t off the mark either.
No wonder EMI Records picked them up and decided this year to go for a hefty promotion and a reissue of the album, which first came out on 21.07.2009 on Wind Up Records. “Civil Twilight” offers everything. Well, almost everything. On one side there’s the band’s talent, which often manages to squeeze out the optimum when placing its musical ideas; on the other there’s a naive face, sketched out mostly by a few of the less interesting songs, the kind the band could have easily “cut” from the lineup, because the album has a whopping 14 tracks. That’s decidedly too many for a fixed, clearly drawn musical direction that can’t take many challenges or moves into the territory marked by the word experiment.
Anybody Out There is, no beating around the bush, a great album opener. Very successfully produced, with crystal-clear separation between the individual building blocks, and arranged optimally. And interestingly. If it were the eighties, U2 would be very jealous of this song. The “Edge-style” guitar and especially the approach to the vocals are completely U2-esque. Sometimes the resemblance is downright stunning. A pinch of Thom Yorke from Radisohead in the vocal tone and approach can’t be overlooked either. It’s a song that’s wound up tight and very atmospheric at the same time. It has a grabby chorus that wins the listener over. What’s funny is the diametrically opposite picture you get with the second track, Soldier. Imagine how the first The Police record would sound if Bono Vox sang for them. Yep. There’s a detectable pinch of that famous punk reggae combo in there (no SKA, though!). Damn The Police. They’re also accomplices in the development of that tasteless genre offshoot, pop punk. This is the only such punky moment on the album. Otherwise “Civil Twilight” is built as an album of the dreamy, suffering kind of atmosphere. The third track, Next To Me, confirms that right away. And that suits the band much better. So stick with it going forward.
The album “Civil Twilight” highlights the band’s ability to create infectious songs that have the right combination of melody and melancholy, and it makes good use of the available sonic space with bold arrangements and excellent production. Never mind that their roots are South African and that the band has lived in the USA for a good while, I’d file Civil Twilight in an instant under the typical new-wave bands coming out of the British Isles. Put in rhyme: “So the story’s no child’s play, though it’s modern, and it copies other stories from the isles, they say”.
Sure, the trio Civil Twilight, with their whining and moaning, remind you of a little (barely carried to term) kid who has to sleep alone in a room for the first time in their life, without mom and dad, and then whimpers and hides under the sheet so the fears of the dark don’t eat them up. Still, this is a combo that stands confidently behind its actions and justifies them. The first half of the album especially has remarkably colorful and lively character structures in the individual songs, which keep the listener hooked. They sound modern, the way today’s labels looking for the next Muse, Coldplay or Radiohead can only wish. Letters From The Sky, the fourth track on the album, also successfully keeps the mood at the right level and so keeps the listener close. The dramatic ending of the song, where the drums break loose alongside the “Edge-style” guitar, proves that Civil Twilight are guys who have a very good handle on their instruments.
In the second half the album gets a bit watered down, as the ideas turn somewhat repetitive. Keep in mind that the vocal tone and singing approach are strictly staked-out attributes. There are only two options here. You either love the vocals or you hate them. So a U2 fan will feel right at home with Civil Twilight. And the same goes for the way the electric guitar is used, which borrows a ton from 80s U2. Luckily there are the keyboards, which shake the whole thing up. The band’s use of keyboards (Human) saves them from quite a few traps. Hence the quips about Muse. Civil Twilight are a band that knows how to play and arrange songs. They don’t surprise in the least when it comes to originality, but they’re a successful derivative of the bands that were their role models. This is a band that may yet pleasantly surprise us as it grows in the future. And a band that, in today’s situation, has (sadly) the potential to make it commercially with its less interesting and predictable character. And that’s no longer news, not for the last 10 years.
Let’s put it this way to wrap up. This is an album that will appeal to everyone who’s into the range of bands like U2, Coldplay, Muse. The only problem with the album is that it reminds you of those bands and brings nothing original. So Civil Twilght are a band that, with a potential commercial breakthrough, takes space away from creative talents rotting away in basements. But we can’t blame them for that, we blame the greedy labels pouring money into clones of the bands cited above.
Lineup
Steven McKellar – vocals, keyboards, bass guitar
Andrew McKellar – guitar
Richard Wouters – drums, percussion
Production
Michael Carney, Noel Golden & Civil Twilight
Track list
1.Anybody Out There
2.Soldier
3.Next to Me
4.Letters from the Sky
5.On the Surface
6.Trouble
7.Human
8.Perfect Stranger
9.What You Want
10.Something She Said
11.Quiet in My Town
12.Run Dry
13.Save Yourself
14.Stolen
