15 years have passed since the band released the seminal The Optimist LP, a quintessential 'New Acoustic Movement' album that brought the beautiful singing, harmonising and the songcraft of Turin Brakes to the attention of the world. At the time it was a breath of fresh air in a saturated sea of over-driven guitars, over-inflated egos, and rapidly deminishing post-Britpop returns. Oasis had released the horribly self-congratulatory and shallow Familiar To Millions live CD the year before, a release that summed up the dangerously flatulent music scene, that only carried glimpses of something a little more nuanced and interesting, from the likes of Ryan Adams, Lambchop and Elliot Smith. But these were all Americans. What we needed was someone homegrown….

Neither a bang nor a whimper, Turin Brakes helped to bring back some old school values back into music. Not only with their singing, but also with their classicist songwriting chops, that crucially allowed for a touch of experimentation here and there, elevating their music above and beyond the hackneyed and familiar into something altogether fresh.

Having endured many highs and lows along the way, Ollie Knights, Gale Paridjanian, Eddie Myer and Rob Allum have survived, and are indeed thriving if their new top 40 album and a string of sold out dates is anything to go by. And they looked like they are having a gas, back in Brighton, their home-from-home, where they played their first ever gig, and were taken on by a Brighton based manager, who released their first record on his little label, Anvil Recordings, back in '99.

Their aforementioned new album Lost Property seems to have caught the crest of a new wave in the never ending ebb and flow of musical fortunes experienced by a band who have been round the block a few times. And tonight, they showed why it is one of their best albums, confident enough to have played most of it here along with a batch of songs from across their back catalogue, going right back to The Optimist, of course. Their new found confidence is in no small part due to the consistent stream of great songs that come out of Knights, as well as his quite beautiful singing, always pitch perfect, and full of depth and emotional iridescence. He is, in short, one of the finest pop singers of recent times, but always one of the least showy, a man who looks blissed out at times, completely lost in the moment. It's a big reason why they remain enduring and endearing. And when the moment takes them, they like to get their inner Pink Floyd out for epic flourishes, such as on new track Black Rabbit, that sits perfectly along with the quieter, more delicate moments on offer here.

There was a lot of love tonight, and this was nicely reciprocated by a band who encored several times, including the uplifting duo of Underdog (Save Me) and Sea Change: "If we don't do this, Nobody else will." Indeed, nobody can.
Jeff Hemmings

Website: turinbrakes.com
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