The only thing misery loves more than company is a backbeat. While capturing pure happiness surely remains the Holy Grail of any artistic endeavour, the blues is the bedrock of popular music for a reason. Sure enough, as we ready for the clocks to go forward, two albums arrive which could hardly be said to be full of the joys of spring, although they approach personal crisis – and catharsis – in very different ways.

It’s The Long Goodbye, the sixth album by Scottish indie-rock band the Twilight Sad, is their first in seven years. During that hiatus lead singer and lyricist James Graham was dealing with his mother’s decline and eventual demise from early onset dementia, while also becoming a father. Eventually, the toll on his health caused him to cancel the band’s tour supporting the Cure in South America and seek medical help.

The songs on the album document this time, though it must be said that the joys of new parenthood are significantly outpunched by wave upon wave of documented trauma. ‘We’re dealing with the dark again, and this time we’ll........

© The Spectator