Later...When the TV Turns to Static

Background and recording

During their 2011 autumn tour the band debuted "If" live. They continued to perform and develop songs from the album throughout 2012 with "Later...When The TV Turns To Static", "I'd Rather Be Dead (Than Be with You)" and All I Want Is My Baby being among the first to be premiered. During the summer and autumn of 2012 the band went into the studio to record the album. It was recorded and mixed at the Gorbals Sound Studio in Glasgow. A tour was announced called "The Crying Onion" tour, which would see the band perform throughout December 2012 and continue to perform new material.

In an interview with Louder Than War, bass player Paul Donoghue tells Katie Clare how singer James Allan had a vision of how he wanted the album to be "James really has a full idea how this album should be, he even co-directed the first video, it was his vision from start to finish, he worked really hard and it gave everything a real continuity. Even the artwork was planned and the deluxe edition will come with a 40 page booklet that was all part of the idea." The album was also produced by lead singer Allan, Rab insisted: "We knew exactly what we wanted so there was no point in having anyone else but James working on it." James added: “It’s really hard to get to that point where you have a record out that you can sit and listen to that you totally adore.

Writing

Talking about the songs on the album lead singer James Allan says "I guess whether it’s my life or my experience it’ll either be that, or it’ll be my perception of something." he goes on to say "whether the songs were about my experiences... well they were about my experiences, and if they weren’t about my experiences, they were about my thoughts on things." Talking about If Allan explains "Quite a sympathetic song. It seems a shame the hardest, toughest things seem to define people. It’s not the times you hold the medal or wins that do it. The song is a spiritual view on things – without something evil, the kind-hearted man would walk on by, invisible." He went on to explain the inspiration behind the song, "My idea for the song came about during a phone call a while back with my good friend Alan McGee. He was talking to me about something quite difficult that was going on at the time and I said to him, 'Alan, if we didn't go through the bad stuff, we wouldn't recognize the good stuff; it would be invisible to you." Talking about the album's final track Finished Sympathy Allan says it's about the speed with which we're expected to shed naivety, how "people's expectations can be overwhelming. It's like when an infant trips and falls – people rush to pick them up and crowd around them going, 'Are you OK? Are you all right?' But as soon as you're out of that infant stage, when you trip and fall, everybody laughs at you. As you get older, it seems like sympathy is nowhere to be found." Explaining the meaning behind the title track Allan explains "“I guess it’s a song that I was writing, kind of about the place between what has just happened, a chapter that has just passed, and moving into the next chapter, the new dawn, that in-between place, where the unknown lies ahead, the mystery lies ahead, and that can be quite scary."

Critical response

Later...When The TV Turns To Static has received generally favourable reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 61 based on 11 reviews. Fiona Shepard at The Scotsman praised Allan's songwriting and later went on to single out "Choices" and "I'd Rather Be Dead (Than Be With You)" as highlights: "Most impressive of all are Choices and I’d Rather Be Dead (Than Be With You)". Paul Mardles at The Observer also pinpoints "Choices" and the title track "Later...When The TV Turns To Static" as highlights.

Commercial performance

Later...When The TV Turns To Static charted at number 41 in the UK Album Charts on 8 September 2013, selling less than 3,000 copies during its first week of release. This marked a decline in fortunes for the band whose first two albums charted in the top 10. It has sold only 6,248 copies in the UK as of July 2014. The album debuted at number 30 on the Swedish Album Charts.

Singles

"I'd Rather Be Dead (Than Be With You)" was released as the lead single from the album on 25 March 2013 as a digital download, which featured an acoustic version of "All I Want Is My Baby". It was later released as a limited edition 7" vinyl on 22 April 2013 for World Record Store Day, which included the album track "Later...When The TV Turns to Static" as a special teaser for the album. "If" was released as the second single taken from the album on 8 July 2013. Title track "Later...When The TV Turns To Static" was released as the album's third single in November 2013, and "Secret Truth" was released as the fourth single in July 2014.

Formats

Later...When The TV Turns To Static was released in three formats. Standard CD, Heavyweight White Vinyl and Deluxe Almanac. The Deluxe Almanac is presented with the iconic chevron foil embossed on a hardback almanac bound in linen with 40 stitched-in pages and ribboned page keeper.

Track listing

All tracks written by James Allan.