Track Listing

1. Here It Begins
2. Truth Only Smiles
3. Bloodless Coup
4. Longshore Drift
5. Kalypso
6. Future Perfect Tense
7. Joy Maker Machinery
8. There Will It End

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1759 in Music
• Released on: 2009-06-22
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: CD
• Dimensions: .15 pounds

CD Description
Taking their name from a Kurt Vonnegut novel, Sweet Billy Pilgrim's second full-length album comes with the esteem of being selected for the 2009 Mercury Music Prize. Distinctly experimental in approach, 'Twice Born Men' takes complex layers of sound and mingles them with inventive indie rock. Aside from their work in Sweet Billy Pilgrim, all the members are prolific session musicians, having worked with the likes of James Dean Bradfield and The Boy Least Likely To. With theMercury nomination under their belts, though, Sweet Billy Pilgrim could well be a full-time occupation.

Customer Reviews

Something of a Masterpiece
I bought this album after reading the 5 star review in the Sunday Times. There are only a handful of these a year so I thought it worth a punt and I've been playing it pretty much non stop ever since.

Twice Born Men's opening track introduces a refrain of just a few notes played on electric guitar which is mirrored in the final track, There Will It End. For all the textures, layers and complexity of what lies between, this simplicity and immediacy of sentiment pervades the whole. Twice Born Men is a brilliantly complete record that is captivating, elemental and, at times, heart breaking. This is a piece of music that will stay with you.

The album is a voyage, full of yearning, of life and love, a sweetly melancholic journey brave enough to acknowledge the goodbyes we must make along the way. The lyrics are incredibly evocative, beautifully served by the album artwork, and the music unlike anything else I've heard - complex, unusual, melodious, discordant, exhilarating and mournful - all of these combining effortlessly without ever losing the album's narrative thread.

For me, what makes Twice Born Men so special is that the album achieves the very rare feat of maintaining intensity throughout - it creates its own realm of existence into which you are swept by the exquisite songwriting - so that when the record finishes and the journey is done you'll feel a little wiser and a little sadder - and a little bit unsure of what to do next. Thoroughly recommended.

Pilgrim's Progress
M.Hodgkinson is quite right. Sweet Billy Pilgrim have created
something quite special with their new album 'Twice Born Men'.

This is music of almost visionary intensity.
Subtle, elusive, mysterious and (at the end of it all)
strangely moving.

Messrs Elsenberg, Bishop and Hamer know how to catch a
good tune and run with it, although not necessarily in
the direction we might have anticipated. This continually
makes for some very nice surprises.

The unsettling narrative of opening track 'Here It Begins'
throws us into uncertain territory without a hand to hold.

At the outset 'Truth Only Smiles' almost sounds like it could
have escaped from a Brecht/Weill collaboration but subsequently
settles down into a gloriously warm and uplifting refrain.

The marvelously dense chords and harmonies of 'Bloodless Coup' are a joy;
the big, big chorus rubbing shoulders with the jangly exposed banjo is just
the kind of inventive juxtaposition which keeps us on our toes.

The fractured intimacy of 'Longshore Drift', shot through with crackling
static, is a disturbingly ambivalent invention. Dark and very unsettling.

'Kalypso' plays like an epic cinematic nightmare set
on a ghost ship lost in dense inpenetrable fog.
We are left uncertain about whether we are in good or evil territory and it
is just this quality which makes the song worm its way into our imagination.

'Future Perfect Tense', with its slightly twisted latin rhythm and folksy
vocal, looks towards and away from a US West Coast sound simultaneously.

'Joy Maker Machinery' is an astonishing composition.
Underwater piano, luminous strings and a terrific central
vocal performance create a profound emotional impact.
The wonderful contrast again between big and small.
The accoustic slide-guitar and hokey harmonica at its still
centre melding with the wobbly widescreen choral arrangement
delivers an absolutely extraordinary sonic experience.

'There It Will End', in its ragged simplicity, is a ravishing
conclusion to a truly mind-blowing, must-have, album.

Please listen to it.

Essential.

It's a Grower
The second album from this unassuming band.Repeated listens will reward the listener as the subtle nuances of Sweet Billys Sound becomes apparent.Tracks such as Bloodless Coup and Kalypso have an immediate impact but others such as "Joy Maker Machinery" and "There it will end" are crafty little bu**ers who creep up on you and catch you when you least expect it.It's an album to kick back and simply listen to whilst allowing your thoughts to drift.It's a great album for sure although no track quite matches the heights of "stars spill out of paper cups" from the 1st album.However that's akin to saying Queen never quite wrote a song as good after bohemian rhapsody. Apparently this album was made in a shed in the singers garden.I wonder if B&Q are missing a marketing opportunity here. Sheds of inspiration !