Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters

The Twilight Sad

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 3, 2007)
• Original Release Date: April 3, 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Fat Cat
• ASIN: B000N3SSS0
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #85,276 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Through a wash of shimmering, overdriven guitars and thunderous drums, a thickly accented Glaswegian voice rises and falls across a soundscape of sweeping expanse. And so goes the Twilight Sad's full-length debut, Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters, nine songs of ambitious scope and widescreen proportions. Each track is a mini-epic right down to its ornate title, like the blazing, blaring "Talking with Fireworks / Here, It Never Snowed," and "That Summer, At Home I Had Become The Invisible Boy," an evocative and affecting account of adolescent romantic bewilderment. The band's nearly overwhelming wall of sound means there's no shortage of aural stimulus to fill up the listener's ears, but penetrate the surface of this circuitous and clamorous record, and you'll find the Twilight Sad are concealing bewitching songs underneath all that noise. --Ben Heege

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters, May 31, 2007

By	A. J. Vice "Zephyr" (Plano, TX) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Yes, singer James Graham has a thick accent. Get over it. Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters is a lush, beautiful soundscape of pulsing, droning guitar haze layered with bright, rhythmic drumming, and poetic, heartfelt lyrics. Graham sings every word with import, convincing the listener that his words are truly his own, and not just the rambling bull of a man strapped for lyrics to put to his songs.

The songs are heavy. They are very, very heavy, but that in no way compromises their beauty. Despite the wall of sound that assaults the listener, the instruments are still apparent, the melody still perceivable, and the overall theme of the music is not lost. Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters is an album to listen to as you cruise the highway in the dead of night. Listen to this album when you have time to ponder, and time to appreciate the effort that these lads and lasses from Glasgow have put out in order to make a gorgeous record for all of us to wallow in.

Though the songs are primarily dark in lyric and in music, the album is compelling, and somehow, uplifting. Give the Twilight Sad a chance, and I doubt you'll be disappointed. Don't be turned off by Graham's accent like I was at first. Give him time, and I assure you his voice will grow on you, and you'll realize that these songs couldn't be sung by any other voice.

17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars When you see that you're all mine... with a knife in your chest, April 12, 2007

By	Kevin Satterwhite (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Here they are, after hearing my cries for a great, new band, The Twilight Sad release one of the best albums of the past few years. From the start, the listener is draped within TTS's atmospheric sound and with it they promote a wondrous landscape. It's the perfect blend of Scottish folk, distortion and ambiance. All the post-modern, sonic guitars; slow, melodic drum beats; and piercing, droning sounds are blended perfectly with the soft vocals and acoustics. Imagine if you will the sonic, ambient sounds of a modern day, experimental band such as Explosions In The Sky but more traditionally structured with Scottish influences, such as how Big Country took the music of their era and conjured their sound. That is the picture you should envision when considering the sound of The Twilight Sad.

"Cold Days From The Birdhouse" serves as the ideal introduction for "Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters". Beginning with acoustic guitars, a repetitious piano note and soft vocals, it ends after a climax of loud distorted sounds and perfectly demonstrates to the listen exactly what to expect throughout the rest of the album. "That Summer, At Home I Had Became the Invisible Boy" is one of the best songs of this year. It's the true gem of this wonderful album. In the song, singer, James Grahams' narratives explain a tragic tale that the narrator caused. "These walls are filled with blame" Graham expresses on "Mapped By What Surrounded Them".

The overall mood of the album as you should tell is melancholy. How could it not be when you name your band `The Twilight Sad' and have song titles such as "And She Would Darken The Memory" and "Last Years Rain Didn't Fall Quite So Hard" on your debut album "Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters"? There are nine tracks on this album; the majority of which are over five minutes in length, none of them lackluster. There isn't a skippable track on here and none of them feature minutes of filler sounds or noises like most experimental bands will induce on the listener.

Without needing to get into too much more detail, this is my personal choice for album of the year at this point in early April. If for some reason another band comes along and knocks this from my top spot, I will more then welcome it. I would love to meet the artist(s) that can relinquish my obsession with this album.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of 2007's top albums, June 22, 2007

By	P. Lundquist (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I can't stop listening to this album. Singer James Graham's thick brogue is startling at first, then heartily endearing- much like much of the album's material. The thick layers of noise, overdriven guitar, and accordion pull you into a wash of atmosphere and emotion, where the epic scope of the songs buried underneath tear through to your very core. Anyone who knocks this album for Graham's accent either simply didn't give him a chance or has no taste in music.