by Alec Calvillo
Twin Peaks! Not the show, or the town but the band. They released their third album “Down in Heaven” May 13.
They’re a young five piece band from Chicago, Illinois that released their first album when they were seniors in high school back in 2012. They weren’t always a five man group until Colin Croom joined them in 2015 as their keyboard player and influenced their sound for this album.
The rest of the band consists of Clay Frankel and Caiden James on guitar and vocals, Jack Dolan is the bassist and occasional vocalist and lastly Connor Brodner on drums.
Twin Peaks have a unique sound that changes throughout each album. They started out with a garage rock sound like The Sonics, but now sound like The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan.
Their live performances are very special as they change up some of their songs and make crowds go crazy with their energy.
“Down in Heaven” has that Rolling Stones guitar tone and the folky sounding acoustic guitars that emulate Bob Dylan.
This album has a calmer approach compared to their the last album, which may surprise fans in a good or bad way. The vibe can be described as laying back on a rocking chair on a porch in the south on a cool summer night.
This album sounds like a love album, with its lyrics about relationships and love. The album cover looks like a handmade valentine’s card with its pink and red colors.
By adding piano to the band, it has influenced some of the songs on this album. “Walk to the One You Love” is a perfect example of piano adding to the melody and complementing the rhythm.
Before “Down in Heaven” their sound was quite the opposite. “Wild Onion” their sophomore album that was released two years ago was more energetic and great for live performances.
Even Frankel’s vocals even changed from a Jim Morrison deep to high pitch Wayne Kramer.
Although they changed their sound, they did a good job changing their new sound and the album is enjoyable. Many artists struggle when they change their sound and even lose fans, but that wasn’t the case for Twin Peaks. They adjusted their vocals, added piano and didn’t throw in anything too obscure to throw off the theme for this album.
There were three singles released that were mediocre at first but then grew on me.
“Walk to the One You Love” was the first single released and it’s the best out of the three that came out. It captures the essences of this album with everybody being involved and heard.
One of the best songs that wasn’t a single is “Getting Better.” It is sang by bassist Jack Dolan. It has piano driving the rhythm and giving the song a groove. It features both guitarists playing licks back and forth. It’s one of those feel good songs.
The track “Lolisa” sounds a little different because of the reverbed vocals, but still sounds cool nonetheless. It has vocals and acoustic guitar that are very reminiscent of Ty Segall’s “Caesar.” Despite the similarity it’s a great song that even offers a catchy chorus and trumpets helping out every now and then to spice up the song.
Some songs weren’t that interesting for some reason. The track “Stain” just didn’t have enough punch and creativeness for me to like it. The song drags on with lyrics that seem cliche.
This album deserves three and a half stars out of five, but Twin Peaks are more than capable of creating a five out of five stars album.
This band always puts on an amazing live performance. They’re one of those artists that sound better live and put on a show. That could means that “Down in Heaven” could sound even better live.
“Down in Heaven” was really enjoyable and proved that Twin Peaks just don’t make fast pace garage rock music, but more complex rock ‘n’ roll. I hope they return to their roots because it’s that garage rock sound that made them so unique and lovable.
