Album Reviews

Formerly known as This Town Needs Guns, this UK trio now goes through life as TTNG and it’s under that moniker that they have now released their new album, “Disappointment Island”.

The band’s brand of math rock comes with clean and complex fretwork with plenty of swirling and noodling, gentle yet busy drums and high-pitched vocals that occasionally waver off a little off-key. While some of the songs do sound alike, there’s more variation here than on the band’s past releases. “Destroy The Tabernacle!” for example is a largely bass-driven tune that comes off as a lot moodier than what we’re used to from TTNG. Unfortunately, you also have tracks like “In Praise Of Idleness” and “Empty Palms” that just kinda wander around without ever really figuring out where it is they want to go.

I gave “Disappointment Island” several tries, but ultimately found it impossible to really get into this album. These dudes obviously know what they are doing, but I found this batch of songs most enjoyable when I stopped listening to it attentively and let it slip into the background.