1. Painkiller
2. Underdog (Save Me)
3. Emergency 72
4. Long Distance
5. The Door
6. 5 Mile (These Are The Days)
7. Feeling Oblivion
8. Average Man
9. Over And Over
10. Mind Over Money (extended radio edit)
11. Fishing For A Dream
12. Dark On Fire
13. Red Moon
14. Something In My Eye
15. Stalker
16. Last Chance
17. Ether Song
Turin Brakes have never been a particularly easy band to pin down. We might know them as two unassuming lads from South London who strum acoustic guitars, sing spine-tingling harmonies and write brilliant, bittersweet love songs. Beyond that, though, many of us don’t really know who they are.
That could be about to change with the release of the duo’s first career-spanning album, Bottled At Source – The Best Of The Source Years. Of Turin Brakes. Beginning with The Door, the lead track from their 1999 debut EP, it follows Olly Knights and Gale Paridjanian through the high points of four contrasting studio albums, culminating in 2007’s Dark On Fire. In doing so, it finally makes full and proper sense of a group who have constantly confounded fans by steadfastly refusing to make the same kind of record twice.
‘We seem to confuse a lot of people, because we’re not straightforward,’ says lead singer and rhythm guitarist Olly. ‘But that’s why people like us, too. We have been difficult to market. It’s much easier to sell vanilla ice cream than something with lots of interesting, nutty bits.
‘In the long run, I trust our internal quirkiness. I wouldn’t feel good if we had smoothed ourselves out in order to be commercially successful. It’s now ten years since our first EP, and it’s nice to mark that anniversary. For us, it is about creating a legacy. I hope that people can put their preconceptions aside and realise that Turin Brakes wrote and sang all these great songs.’
Olly met harmony singer and lead guitarist Gale when the two were still in primary school in Balham, South London. The pair spent much of their childhood in and out of each other’s houses and made their first public appearance together at a school concert in 1985. Turin Brakes grew, almost by accident, out of the songs they wrote together in their late teens. They chose their name before releasing that debut EP, ‘because we didn’t want to call ourselves Olly And Gale’.
The signature sound of their early years – shimmering acoustic guitars, vocal harmonies as soft and refreshing as a gentle summer breeze – was captured perfectly on their 2001 debut album, The Optimist LP. Featuring songs such as Underdog (Save Me) and Emergency 72, it was nominated for that year’s Mercury Music Prize. Despite its pristine, acoustic feel, it also won admiring glances from fans of chilled-out British dance acts like Zero 7 and Lemon Jelly.
‘We were seen as strong, original songwriters, but we were courted by dance labels before we signed our record deal with Source,’ says Olly. ‘We were on the same circuit as a lot of dance acts.’
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