Twilight Fields ‘Songs From The Age of Ruin’ Review: one-man band Allister Thompson offers ethereal, melodic protest anthems on new album.
It’s fascinating given the tumultuous era in which we live, that most modern music rarely addresses it. Gone are the days where musicians questioning authority during trying times was expected. Indeed, most modern rock and pop seems to divorce itself from serious matters entirely.
Luckily, not everyone is content to remain silent. Such is the case with Allister Thompson’s solo project Twilight Fields, which offers vintage 80’s jangle and plenty of food for thought on their new album Songs From The Age of Ruin (due February 2019).
Things kick off with the psychedelic swirls of Prologue: The Ruined City, followed by Bomber, who’s soothing, ambling delivery belies lyrics of the bombing of Hiroshima.
Lead single Demagogue detours into glittering synth-pop, addressing the chaotic reign of president Donald Trump (He’ll usher in the bright white new age/He’ll fight progress and turn back the page/To a past that never existed),but could also apply to any number of troubling authoritarian leaders popping up across the globe.
Thompson, whose vocals often recall Tim Booth of James, covers plenty of sonic ground, from folksy laments (Taken Away, The Animals Song, The Holy War), propulsive alt-rock (the catchy Lovers In A Dangerous Time), and ambient instrumentals (Maximum Darkness) all of which cultivates a mood that is alternately hopeful and fretful.
Nowhere is this clearer than on the album’s finest track, Offended, a genteel ballad that tackles how social media has taken a wrecking ball to common courtesy and has unearthed bigotry to a frightening degree. His commentary on our state of constant outrage is balanced by wry humor: the shallow and the cruel, spread their hatred freely, exercise their ignorance, from the left and the right/but mostly the right…
Songs From The Age of Ruin manages to state its defiant case on current affairs in a soothing package, a therapeutic sonic concoction that anyone needing solace and enchanting melodies can appreciate. .
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