bar italia – The Twits – Album Review
by Killian Laher

bar italia received some acclaim this year, and their output more than justifies it.  They released their third album, Tracey Denim in May, and less than six months later they released a follow-up.  The previous album had a muted, understated charm, but for anyone unconvinced by it, this should seal the deal that something significant is going on here.  The Twits takes the charm of its predecessor and expands on it.  This time the guitars are less spidery, sounding like the shackles are off.

The band crash into my little tony right from the off with some hard rocking guitar, and it’s followed quickly by the lovely syrupy guitars on Real house wibes (desperate house vibes).  twist slows proceedings down a bit, Nina Cristante’s vocals to the fore before Jezmi Fehmi joins on a bored-sounding part.   There’s a significant Sonic Youth influence on the album, but not the early touchstones, it’s more late period, Murray Street-era SY, roughed up a bit.  This is epitomised by the noisy guitars of worlds greatest emoter, which zips along nicely before cutting off abruptly just shy of three minutes.

This Sonic Youth influence continues with calm down with me, which has a Thurston Moore style vocal from Fehmi, and guitars – such guitars! – going from introspective and liquidy in the verse and then hitting the chorus with a lovely growl.  The moody que suprise is cut from similar cloth, while most impressive is glory hunter which starts out channeling the xx for 60 seconds before morphing into lovely gauzy heaven.

Later, Shoo combines dark guitar rumblings and sweet singing, and Hi fiver has lovely gauzy guitars, reminiscent of the spirit of The Breeders rather than aping them.  Perhaps the most downright gorgeous track here is the Cure-channeling sounds like you had to be there and even the penultimate track, the acoustic, downbeat yet danceable Jelsy is just as good as what went before.

Many of these shapeshifting songs are packed with ideas and nothing outstays its welcome. Yes, it’s very reminiscent of lots of indie bands, a sort of alt-rock collage, but it’s an album that gets better with every listen. They’re a band who seem to create their own world.  You’ll want to inhabit it.

worlds greatest emoter