Turin Brakes’ new album We Were Here

So what happens to an optimist when they have to face up to the realities of modern life? What to do when experience turns to weary pragmatism and – with it – wistful daydreams of escape?

A decade and a half into a career that’s inspired artists as diverse as the Staves and Flux Pavilion, these are the questions posed by the sublime sixth album from Turin Brakes. From the majestic opening swoop and swirl of “Time and Money” through to the elegiac campfire slide of closer “Goodbye”, We Were Here finds the band – Olly Knights and Gale Paridjanian along with long time collaborators Rob Allum and Eddie Myer – at their most assertive and consistent, with a hypnotic collection of songs that nods to classic releases of the ’70s and also to the triggers of existential dread that sit right at the heart of the information age.

Recorded over two weeks of eighteen hour days in legendary Welsh studio Rockfield, We Were Here (released October 8th via Cooking Vinyl/Red River Entertainment) gorgeously chimes and echoes with the pastoral psychedelia of Pink Floyd, the sunset soul of Laurel Canyon, the blues of the Mississippi Delta and the band’s own six-stringed past.

Watch and share now the video for album’s first single “Time and Money”, which features the bloody capture of a pension fund manager, HERE.

Formed in Balham, South West London, in 1999 by childhood friends Olly Knights and Gale Paridjanian, Turin Brakes signed to French label Source in 2000 and released their Mercury Music Prize nominated debut album The Optimist (2001). Their second album Ether Song (2003) entered the UK album charts at number 4 and spawned the Top 5 single Pain Killer (Summer Rain). The Top 10 album JackinABox was released in 2005 and followed by Dark On Fire (2007). The band signed to Cooking Vinyl in 2009 and released Outbursts (2010).