Matt Wilson and John Munson emerge from the dark night as The Twilight Hours
It’s an odd journey that has led to The Twilight Hours. Long time readers will be aware of my love for late 80s / early 90s Minnesota band Trip Shakespeare. When that band dissolved, bassist John Munson went on to join Semisonic, while front man Matt Wilson seemingly wandered around in the abyss, releasing only one solo album in ten years. In 2001, Munson and Wilson formed The Flops, a two-man band that played a mixture of old Trip songs, some of Wilson’s solo work and some other bits and pieces. They released a grand total of one live CD, disappearing again in 2005. Sometime after that they started billing themselves as The Dark Nights, which has now morphed in to The Twilight Hours. Only now, seventeen years after the breakup of Trip Shakespeare, do we actually get some new material from two incredibly talented individuals.
And you know what? It’s slightly disappointing. I suspect this is because of how much I’ve built this up in my mind over the years. I adore those Trip Shakespeare records, as well as virtually everything Semisonic and Matt Wilson have put out in between. What I’m struggling with here is that this whole album feels just a little too MOR. There’s nothing strictly wrong with it, and Wilson’s vocal remains compelling throughout. It can’t seem to help remaining a little flat though.
That said, it has it’s moments too. The new arrangements for older Wilson songs Forgot Me Now and Queen of Tomorrow are largely successful. The song below, My Return, is the closest the record ever gets to the Trip sound of old. Vocals play off of each other, guitars rev into life and harmonies pop in at just the right time. It still feels like it’s being held back a little, but after this amount of time, I’ll take what I can get.
Stereo Night is out now in “Good enough for me” mp3 quality (160kbps) for absolutely nothing from the band’s website. Also available in “When it comes to music, I don’t like to compromise too much” mp3 quality (320kbps / $7) or “I’m a person of high quality, I’ll need your best music” CD for $10. More bands should be adopting this system.
Gotta say I’m slightly disappointed with your disappointment. I’m also a long time fan, more on Matt’s side pf the family, and had many expectations as well. Frankly, I think Burnt, White and Blue is the best yet, but Stereo Night is of a different aura, that of the dreamy, smooth groove. It is literally of the night, where more subtle waves of harmony and ache are magnified by the dark. A luxurious evening is it’s own vein of euphoria. And in this realm, Matt and John hold us on that blissful edge. Turn off the lights, put on the phones, close your eyes and sink into it. Nowhere near the middle of the road, but wafting above it, glorious.
Reading back over it again, it does seem like I’ve focused on the negatives rather more than I should have done.
Any disappoint is likely down to my own expectations rather than the record itself. Don’t get me wrong, I do think it’s good. I’ve been playing it on and off for a week now with no sign of that coming to an end. I suppose it’s growing on me a bit more than on the original listens, but there’s still something that isn’t quite working for me.
It’s still a hell of a lot better than just about everything else I’ve listened to this year. It just has too much past greatness hanging over it unfortunately.
Grow on me this album does, and the live show in NYC the other night was an amazing experience. I thought this album was OK at first and with each listen realize it is equally as amazing as Wilson’s previous output. Trip, BW&B and TTH are three different approaches to music, and I simply can’t choose any one of them as being better than the other.