Twin Flames – Omen
With the core of its emotionality shaped not only by lyrics but through the very delivery of the vocal harmony, Twin Flames’ “Battlefields” is definitely reason enough to give its parent album Omen a listen this September, but far from the lone song of note in the LP’s tracklist.
A multilingual encapsulation of the record’s sound – easily identifiable as transformative to those who have been following the duo’s work in recent years – “Battlefields” is as brooding as it is mood-setting, and personally, I can’t imagine another song opening Omen better. Twin Flames are nice faces to most American audiences, but with a style like theirs, I don’t see that staying the case for long.
Beyond its star single, there’s a lot of substance to Omen’s deeper cuts, such as the unforgettable Sleater-Kinney-esque “Outcast,” the vulnerable “Human,” swaggering “Follow Me” and soft-spoken “Who I Am,” each of which support a larger narrative of self-awareness, cross-cultural continuity and a poetic credibility that has become increasingly difficult to find in mainstream pop and rock music. Though the material isn’t quite as earthy as some of Twin Flames’ most talked-about early cuts, there’s a sense of unfiltered passion that accompanies every lyric, every note here, verifying authenticity whilst simultaneously lending affection to the stories being shared.
The fusion of French, Inuit and English linguistics in Omen would initially seem a little strange and unnecessarily complex to some, but in the case of songs like “Without Tears” and “Pisuppunga,” it translates to pure connectivity with the audience in a fashion not possible in a more straightforward content. The words meld together beautifully, and regardless of your native tongue, there’s a warmth to the harmonies guiding these lyrics that doesn’t allow for us to stray too far from the larger meaning in the music.
A superbly Canadian juggernaut that feels especially appropriate for the isolated times we’re living in right now, Twin Flames’ Omen is everything that a watershed LP should be sans a pretentiousness of presence too frequently adorning similarly-stylized material. Starting with “Battlefields” and continuing through songs like “Grace Too,” “Giants,” the title cut and “Shadows,” this is an album that begs for us to listen closer around every twist, with every turn holding something different that we might not have ever predicted encountering beforehand. It’s as alternative as it gets, but if one thing is certain, Omen is one of the smartest records I’ve heard this year.
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