Album Review: Twin Forks – Twin Forks

Twin Forks
Twin Forks
Dine Alone Records

The Twin Forks is a good band, but their album post-production work hinders their listeners in appreciating their real talent.

Perhaps it is unfair to mention Mumford & Sons or The Lumineers, but it is impossible not to draw obvious comparisons. Both groups are at the epicentre of the best folk rock revolution in recent memory. What makes Mumford & Sons and The Lumineers so powerful as artists is their strong acoustic delivery and their deeply meaningful lyrics. By comparison, The Twin Forks do not live up to these two qualities.

Their sound is very overproduced and hides, or at the very least underwhelms, the beauty of their melodies. All of their tracks suffer from enormous post-production. The human ear, like the human soul, longs for the harmony of their voices and the simplicity of their instruments, but is suffocated with modern technology.

Lyrically, they do not fare any better either. I offer a very quick comparison.

“Kiss Me Darling”
(The Twin Forks)

It’s been a long time since
I saw you in the village playing mandolin
Something in your singing made my burdens lift
Hanging onto every word to cross your lips

Feels like a long way gone
But I can still remember how you sang that song
Smiling like nobody had ever done you wrong
Strumming like you knew you had me all along

“Flowers in Your Hair”
(The Lumineers)

When we were younger we thought
Everyone was on our side
Then we grew a little
And romanticized the time I saw
Flowers in your hair
Cause it takes a boy to live
But it takes a man to pretend he was there

Without digressing into the minutia of literary theory, it may be enough here to point out what is missing – depth. It would be very unfair to profess that “Kiss Me Darling” doesn’t offer any meaning because it does. I am sure it provides tremendous meaning to the songwriter, but it lacks that universal appeal that is so imperative in order to make a connection with the listener. The Lumineer’s song by contrast, has the necessary literary depth because it employs powerful literary devices. It uses humour and can evoke deep, vividly reflective images that allow the listener an opportunity to return time and time again.

I sincerely hope that this is not the last we hear from The Twin Forks. The world has room for more artists like them and the musical panorama certainly needs them. They have tremendous strength, a gift of melody making and a deep desire to connect with their fans. Perhaps their next record will provide the seemingly missing ingredients.

Greg Kieszkowski (Twitter @GregK72)

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