Irish-born and currently London-based sisters Hannah and Colette Thurlow are the founders and creative force of the indie pop act 2:54 – and with the release of their 2012 debut effort, the Thurlow sisters and their backing band not only won international attention, they also toured with the likes of the xx, Wild Beasts and Warpaint.
Their much-anticipated album. The Other I, which is slated for a November 11 release through the world renowned indie rock label, Bella Union Records, and takes its name from the Romantic-era British poet Percy Shelley, who often called his dear friend Elizabeth Hitchener the “sister of my soul, my other self" in countless letters to Hitchener.
Interestingly, the album’s first single “Orion: was a gorgeously lush pop song that evokes traveling on the road under enormous skies and bore an uncanny resemblance to Bjork and Kate Bush – thanks to the fact that song possessed a rather haunting, almost spectral quality. The album’s second single, "In The Mirror” was a moody, atmospheric quality that reminded me quite a bit of Turn On The Bright Lights-era Interpol and The Unforgettable Fire-era U2 but with a slow-burning sensuality. The album’s third and latest single, “Blindfold” consists of atmospheric guitars, piano chords and haunting harmonies but with thundering drumming, which gives this particular song a forceful, muscular heft. It’s probably one of the more straightforward and accessible pop songs they’ve released to date – while managing to be arena rock friendly.
The video was shot at dusk and at night in the curving alleyways, passageways and streets of the Thurlow’s hometown, and it’s shot in a way that makes both of the Thurlows seem larger than life and as though they’re living in part of an extended photo shoot. It’s spliced with performance footage of the Thurlows’ band playing in their rehearsal place. Although artistically done, the video is very straightforward. But I can tell you that there are a couple of sequences that I wish I could have shoot or film myself – the Thurlow sisters in the NYC subway-like passageway, the deserted passageway that evokes the post apocalypse world.