The Xcerts - Scatterbrain

There is a real sense that this album’s artwork eventually defines it. For those of you who have not listened to ‘Scatterbrain’ yet, we would think that the photograph would be enough to pique your interest. A man turned away from the camera, the white of his shirt only partially exposed to the light. Shrouded in darkness.

Those three words are what this record is all about. ‘Scatterbrain’ has tiny patches of light here and there, but you’d be hard pressed to find them after spending a little while with it. Musically and lyrically, the Scottish group’s second album is difficult - in the sense that the anguish that lies at its heart can often become too much to bear.

Take the first song ‘proper’, the title track. Introduced by a minute of feedback, crashing drums and distorted vocals (the perfect indication of the sense of confusion and lack of confidence that forms the album’s theme), it features an arresting opening line that reels the listener right in: ‘So I failed yet again, lost the heart of my dearest friend… hope she’s sleeping well tonight’.

Wow. ‘In The Cold Wind We Smile’, even at its most troubled, was nowhere near as despondent as that - and that’s only the start. ‘Distant Memories’ could be a song about suicide. In album context, it probably is; filled with regret and desperation, even a sense of futility. A relationship that clearly means everything to the narrator, who sees himself as ‘an old dress, tattered and torn, that she doesn’t want to wear’, is falling apart. Much like the friends he mentions in ‘Gum’,’wondering why they can’t sleep at night, becoming more and more scared by things that aren’t there.’

See where we’re going with this? As opposed to the various themes explored on the debut (to borrow from Manic Street Preachers, ‘culture, alienation, boredom and despair’), ‘Scatterbrain’ deals with one: a life that is going to pieces. By ‘Young (Belane)’ however, the narrator wonders whether or not they’re ‘getting off on this feeling of feeling pretty low’. Its successor is ‘He Sinks, He Sleeps’, and our character has been driven to quite desperate measures: ‘When the spirits come, they’re gonna corner me and ask me what I did with the boy’s body, but I won’t say: I’ll just smile … He sleeps underwater, and I wish I could sleep at night.’

There’s one of the recurring themes: having trouble sleeping is used as a clear pointer towards the distress in which the narrator finds himself. It appears in almost half of the album’s songs, and is used as a thematic anchor. This is a record that prides itself on a strong sense of cohesion, and the music reflects this very well indeed, marking a move away from alt-pop into harsher territory, with songs that are more ‘rough around the edges’ than anything on the debut. The Brand New comparisons that they picked up after ‘Cold Wind”s release seem even more apt this time.

‘Scatterbrain’ concludes with a sense of finality that suggests both a renewed optimism and a resigned, defeated state. Whichever one that is is left to the listener’s judgement. ‘The lament is getting old’: he could be wanting to make a fresh start, or he could have just decided to pack it in. Considering the dark depths the album plumbs (quite literally at certain points), we’re going to go with the latter. Lyrically at least, this is The Xcerts’ ‘The Holy Bible’ - and is every bit as darkly captivating.