Album Review: Twin Forks - Twin Forks

For those looking for some feel-good, feet-stomping, banjo plucking folk, you could do plenty worse than Twin Forks. This project, and album, was always going to find an audience, simply due to the fact that Dashboard Confessional's Chris Carrabba is at the helm, but it's going to connect with plenty more hearts too; people that wouldn't know or care about the emo scene the 38-year-old made his name in.
It's cute music – the type of gear that could soundtrack a teen flick or rom-com. Lyrically it shoots straight for romance and nostalgia (Cross My Mind; Kiss Me Darlin), and comes with enough cheese to comfortably cover the margarita pizza you're sharing with that special someone. But instrumentally it's played out totally on-point, and produced with just the right balance, letting the songs stand as the hero rather than any particular element within.
Twin Forks is at its best when it's at its most celebratory; the big climatic mid-section of opener Can't Be Broken, or the claps and cries of Scraping Up The Pieces. Suzie Zeldin's back-up vocals throughout are also welcome, making sure there's a sweetness to any sort of struggle that's being documented. But although this project was birthed by Carrabba's love of trad folk, country and Americana, it's too glossy and pop to really sit in the same sort of realm as genre modernists like Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver. But that's fine. Take it for what it is, hold hands and smile.