The seventh studio album from these turn-of-the-millenia survivors begins with their trademark dual acoustic strumming of 96, which recalls in sound, their Time Over Money song from The Optimist album of 2001. That debut album represented the breakthrough for one of the best-loved of the so-called New Acoustic (or Quiet is the New Loud) movement. A loose collection of artists that sometimes did and sometimes didn't include Keane, Coldplay, Kings of Convenience, David Gray, Starsailor et al, they came into being on the back of the dying embers of Brit Pop; when a less strident, and deeper melancholia was what the doctor was patently ordering. Along with a penchant for acoustica, it was the angelic and harmonious voices of childhood friends Gale Paridjanian and Ollie Knights that really captured many of our hearts.

 
Although the guitar revival of The Strokes & Co took the momentum away (NME going for it in typically acerbic fashion 'Last one down to the tattoo parlour still likes Turin Brakes'), the band gained a big hit in the form of Painkiller, as well as a number of minor ones, just before the internet really stuck its claws into the resistant industry, the major casualty being the singles market.
 
But once you have gained that initial fanbase, you really have to do something stupid to lose it, and despite slowing sales and gradually smaller venues, the band have soldiered on, nay consolidated themselves admirably. Co-produced with Ali Staton, and once again recorded at Rockfield Studios on analogue tape, Lost Property may not mark any signifiant departure from what they do best, but it again shows how well they do it. Once again they mix up their classic acoustic/semi-acoustic sound, seamlessly rising from hushed intimacy to expansive textures, with occasional bouts of song experimentation.
 
The upbeat Keep Me Around showcases the keen melodic nous of the duo, and of lead singer Knights, in particular. Not so much via the music – as good as it sometimes is – but via his singing, which weaves its way around the simple chord structure and arrangements with a lightness of touch and a sweet naturalness. Knights voice is on as good a form as ever, despite the fact he is increasingly lapsing into Americanisms, as the band tip toe successfully, if not particularly originally, into American country and rock, such as on the highway rock vibes of both Rome and Jump Start, the latter perhaps a love letter to band mate Gale: “I need the sound of an old friend, why don’t you sing to me.”
 
Sometimes, as on the pedestrian title track, and clique-ridden Save You ('tired eyes, maybe you've seen to much', 'time will save you, you don't need to save yourself') they let their standards drop, venturing into blandness, a trait they are prone to every now and then. But, as always, there's much more good than merely indifferent. Dotted throughout Lost Property are more gems such as the stripped back, and fingerpicked Martini, which features only a little bit of complimentary slide beyond the acoustic and voices, while The Quiet Ones harks back to their earlier sound, a beautifully paced song that shifts through the gears seamlessly
 
Brighter Than The Dark is a more experimental track than we are used to with Turin Brakes. Spacious, and unusually arranged, it begins with what could be a jam, followed by just Knights' voice and guitar, with the odd hand clapped beat, the song then riding one long hollered note, before it turns into a 'jam' again, strings adding to the intensifying sound. And the vaguely Pink Floydish tones (via Breathe and Us and Them) can be felt on Hope We Can Make It, complete with big gospel backing vocals, while closer Black Rabbit sees Knights barely decipherable voice, all gloomy and fragile, within the ultra-melancholy mood, before drums lead the song to a fittingly euphoric climax, Paridjanian letting loose on slide, a Radiohead vibe in tow, before way back-in-the-mix burbling electronics close it out.
 
Wide open and yet intimate, light and dark hues intermingle to mostly pleasing results on Lost Property. It’s once again the sound of a band who have perfected their live sound to a t; able to engage their passionate fans and newer converts via their heart-on-the sleeve approach. It may be de rigour now, but lest we forget that back in 2000, it was seen by many as lightweight. As Knights sings on The Quiet Ones: “Always the quiet ones you got to watch, when you're asleep, we're waking up.”
Jeff Hemmings
 
Website: turinbrakes.com