THE gutter twins - saturnalia

Named after a Roman festival in which slaves traditionally exchanged places with their masters, ‘Saturnalia’ is a neat title for these songs of rebellion and existential anguish. On opening track ‘The Stations’ they sing that they can “hear the rapture coming”, and the crashing drums around them let you know what they mean. I’m not sure who’s DJing at the end of the world, but this should be on their playlist. The religious imagery continues on ‘God’s Children’ but it is on tracks like ‘The Body’ where we begin to realise that there is more to this album than righteous anger. Its ethereal backing vocals belie the seed of optimism that this album contains, and perhaps the only criticism is that this soulful offsetting of the male leads is not done more frequently. In the end, these are redemption songs, forged by two men who are used to reporting back from the Edge. The spirit of the Blues is in songs like ‘Who Will Lead Us?’, but this album isn’t as bleak or nihilistic as many will expect. A sense of optimism, even in the face of spiritual uncertainty, runs through it like a red cord. Like the slaves of Saturnalia, their freedom may be only fleeting - but they’re enjoying every second of it.