Turin Brakes

When conjuring our mental image of folk-rock performers, it’s not unreasonable to envision that singular stoic dude sitting behind an acoustic guitar, crooning out gut-wrenching and tear-jerking ballads all by his lonesome on stage. Now, the U.K.-bred duo of Turin Brakes have no trouble with the emotive songwriting thing, but they seem to have a problem with grasping that whole, woe-is-me, wrist-slittingly painful, intentionally understated thing. The twosome manage to bring folk to a whole new level, incorporating some very untraditional instruments for what we typically associate with the genre for a very big aural effect. - Brien Overly