" The Tide... is carrying me away," sings Sweet Billy Pilgrim songwriter Tim Elsenburg, on "Future Perfect Tense", "I'm all at sea." This existential/maritime note is echoed in the album's sleeve artwork, chalk sketches by Tacita Dean in which three boatmen in shallow, choppy waters are engaged in the long and patient haul of a marooned tall ship. The mood, in some ways, is similar to that of Talk Talk's Laughing Stock. Here, aqueous keyboards provide the oceanic motion, while the tinkling of banjos, courtesy of Anthony Bishop, offers a wooden raft of respite. Elsenburg has described Twice Born Men, the group's second album, released on David Sylvian's label, as a "kind of concept album" based on "the heart's little journey". It takes a circuitous route, from the helpfully titled opener "Here It Begins" to the closing "There It Will End", in which the scenery, the density, the levels of treatment and style are constantly varying. On "Truth Only Smiles", granite blocks of guitar rise, then fall from sight. Initially, Elsenburg's voice has a Thom Yorke-style drag to it, but on "Bloodless Coup", it's more of a weathered Tom Waits rasp, as he surveys the Fennesz-like charred electric debris of a small emotional holocaust. Elsewhere, the mood of these songs is darkened by sudden sea storms, or, as on "Joy Maker Machinery", lightened by what sounds like showers of endorphins. Finally, on "There It Will End", Elsenburg overdubs his voice 30 times over to a harmonium accompaniment as he sights shore. Twice Born Men is an unassuming thing of minor beauty.
DAVID STUBBS