The Bloom and the Blight
The fact that this fairly easily beat three
really wonderful records in Bloc Party,
Alt-J and Bobby Conn to the number one spot, and yet is my second favourite Two Gallants album by some way shows
how much I love this band, and particularly their eponymous third album from
2007. Two Gallants delivered one of my favourite albums of all time and
then immediately took a five year break – so expectations for this were super
high. I wasn’t disappointed. This was already my album of the year by the
time I saw them in a small venue in Camden in the autumn, but the live
interpretations of these songs at that outstanding performance sent this
stratospheric for me.
It’s a heavier album than their earlier
work, but the songwriting brilliance and technical proficiency (guitar playing
that’s not flashy but is utterly impossible to replicate) that are their
trademarks are fully in evidence. Perfectly
written and performed folk-rock. Now
with added punch. The rancorous single,
‘My Love Won’t Wait’ – told from the perspective of a stalker – is the nasty
cousin of ‘Despite What You’ve Been Told’.
Experimental opener ‘Halcyon Days’ and the pained howl of ‘Ride Away’
also show off a meatier side to the band.
But this is juxtaposed beautifully against the likes of the tender
‘Broken Eyes’ (second best track by anyone in 2012, after Alt-J’s ‘Breezeblocks’) and the sing-along of ‘Willie’.
You can tell how good this record is by the
fact that its bonus tracks are better than anything on most of the other albums
on this list. A worthy winner. Forget The
White Stripes or The Black Keys,
Two Gallants are the two piece rock band.