Artist: This Town Needs Guns (TTNG)
Title: Disappointment Island
Label: Sargent House Records
Release Date: 7/08/16
Reviewer: Reilly Shazam
"It's best we part, I am broken and no good for you..." TTNG's 2016 release Disappointment Island ends on such a beautifully somber note, a genuine tear-jerker. The closing song on the record "Empty Palms" is a truly captivating meditation on bittersweet nostalgia and growing apart from loved ones. The honesty with which Henry "Hank" Tremain composes lyrics is a perfect compliment to the beautiful and slightly morose instrumentals. This record is a perfect balance of upbeat, poppy, technical, and honest expression. It quickly became my favorite record of 2016. For this article, I'm going to explore the tracks that stick out most to me but I can't stress enough that there are no bad songs on the record.
The album opens with Coconut Crab. It's definitely one of the more fun tracks on the record. The lyrics are deal with the frustration of writers block or feeling a certain futility in writing at all. This slight irony is a fitting start to the record. Dealing with writers block by writing about having writers block. Wait is that ironic or redundant? Or both? It's been a while since ENG-102, so cut me some slack English majors.
The 3rd track on Disappointment Island, Consoling Ghosts has some of the most interesting vocal melodies and chord changes I've heard in a while. The opening bass chords accompanying the first few vocal lines make for a delightfully peaceful yet somewhat somber atmosphere. When the drums and guitar abruptly kick in, the bass switches roles from lead to support as the guitar and vocal melodies shift and change keys setting an almost uneasy yet strangely soothing mood for the song. Definitely one of my personal favorite tracks on the album. The line "Meet me behind closed eyes..." sticks out to me as a profound expression of missing someone you lost(in the context of the song, specifically lost to suicide). This track is very personal, involved, beautiful, and truly some of TTNG's best work to date.
I could probably talk up the whole record but I think Disappointment Island is best explained by sitting down and listening to the album in its entirety.
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