Twin Atlantic has been making a steady progression touring with big name acts like The Smashing Pumpkins and Blink 182, as well as their own respective headline shows. Their latest release, Free, is a power rock album that almost exceeds perfection and will have you putting the album on loop for who knows how long. It’s familiar yet you can’t really put your finger on what it is that makes the album so easily accessible. Maybe it’s the passionate singing of front man Sam McTrusty or the crafty construction of the songs on the album that range from Foo Fighter-ish to whatever comes to mind for each individual that listens to the album. Seriously, I am somewhere familiar with this album but I just can’t place it.

     The albums first track, Edit Me, starts off with a bang tossing in some blaring rock guitars, passionate vocals, and killer drums. Right off the bat I loved the fact that the bands rock sound is so straight forward yet McTrusty doesn’t do like most international acts and convert his voice into an American accent (The band hails from Scotland). I’m endeared to this fact and find it fascinating to hear his Scottish accent coming on strong throughout the album.
      Another good draw for the band is the combination of both McTrusty and Barry McKenna, both on guitar duties. Their chemistry is a mixture of a subtle catchy pop sound overlapped by a harder rock style or that hard rock guitar sound with the second guitar being used as an effect buried beneath the overall sound. The band’s big use of guitar and Craig Kneale’s drum style which can be both upfront passionately fierce or background tempo-like leaves room for control so that the entirety of the band is heard for its individual efforts. Bassist Ross McNae is the icing on the cake working as a steady core for the band to just roam around, but he also takes the use of bass out of its traditional setting and gives it its own voice on a few tracks.
     The band also incorporates cello and keyboard into the mix of things which adds even more depth to their big sound. McKenna and McNae share keyboard duties while McKenna plays cello which can be heard in tracks like Make A Beast Of Myself and Crash Land. Crash Land is one of my favorites as it’s the albums first and only acoustic track. McTrusty’s voice and accent come on the strongest here without having to compete with the bands fantastic guitar dynamic and McKenna’s use of cello here is very sweet.

     All in all, aside from maybe Dreamember, the album is a fantastic collection of excellent tracks that makes this album one that I can see myself listening to for a long time, and looking forward to each new release from the band. Why Dreamember? This track seems like the only real deviation from the albums overall sound and would have probably worked as a B-side at best. The album as a whole is very youthful and energetic but this one track sounds like homage to late 70’s classic rock which throws off the albums flow. So, yeah, other then that you wouldn’t go wrong picking up this album. I see a bright future for this band. As always final judgment is yours. Enjoy.