TWIN FORKS – Twin Forks (Dine Alone Records)

Twin ForksBright, brash and breezy – Twin Forks’ eponymous debut album takes alt-country-folk-pop-rock and gives it a swift kick in the derrière and if that isn’t a recognised genre, tough, I just invented it.

Twin Forks comprise singer/guitarist Chris Carrabba, drummer Ben Homola, Suzie Zeldin on mandolin and bassman Jonathan Clark. All have had long careers back home: Carrabba with Dashboard Confessional, Homola with Bad Books and Zeldin with The Narrative. I’d never heard of any of them until this album came into my hands purely by chance but that’s the way it is with so many US bands – here in the UK you have to get lucky. Twin Forks are from Florida and it’s tempting, if rather corny, to say that they carry a little of the sunshine with them.

The closing track, ‘Who’s Looking Out’, is atypically downbeat – you’d see it as the going home song in a live set – but like much of the album it is a love song in the old-fashioned style: often painful, frequently unrequited but always glorious. ‘Can’t Be Broken’ has it all: “That’s a love that can’t be broken/That’s the sting of a heart cut open”.  The whole record is full of incisive lyrics and great melodies. The country influences stay well on the right side of hokey and the poppier bits are reminiscent of REM’s Green (their finest album despite what the experts say) while the drums and bass provide a solid foundation. Twin Forks has to be part of your summer soundtrack.

Dai Jeffries

Artists’ website: http://twinforksmusic.com/