Ether Song

Turin Brakes

Record Label: (Virgin)

With their debut album, The Optimist LP, Turin Brakes took a fair few people by surprise. Great songs, soaring harmonies, chugging acoustic guitars - here was a burst of fresh air to make all other releases look over-produced and over-blown by comparison. One Mercury nomination and two years later, Ollie Knights and Gale Paridjanian, fed up of the 'new acoustic' label, have been to LA to record Ether Song with shit-hot US producer Tony Hoffer (Beck, Air, Supergrass). The result is a mixed bag: most songs do indeed live up to the album's title and appear to have popped up from nowhere; some sound more laboured and no amount of twiddly studio artistry can disguise the fact that, say, 'Average Man', is not as good as anything on The Optimist. Still, 'Panic Attack', 'Long Distance', 'Pain Killer' and especially, 'Self Help', will remind you of what you loved about Turin Brakes in the first place. The biggest shame here is the discovery that Hoffer found the duo's first album 'boring'. A more sensitive producer next time please Mr Record Company Man.