Turning barbed lyricism and post-rock swells into grand, soaring, indie anthems, The Twilight Sad steadily grew from cult outsiders into one of Scotland's most beloved bands with a succession of critically acclaimed albums. School friends James Graham, Andy MacFarlane and Mark Devine grew up in the small town of Kilsyth, North Lanarkshire and played together in covers bands in their youth, but really came together in 2003 through a mutual love of The Cure, My Bloody Valentine, The Smiths and Manic Street Preachers. Taking their name from a line in a Wilfred Owen poem, the band's demo tape helped them land a deal with Brighton label Fat Cat Records after just three gigs. Bass player Craig Orzel featured on their first two albums Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters (2007) and Forget the Night Ahead (2009) before Johnny Docherty took over in 2010 and their sound built into beautifully dark, roaring emotional cauldrons and regal, post-punk storms. James Graham's sullen, cryptic tales and pained Glaswegian drawl was another distinct calling card for the band, as they filled their songs with dynamic shifts and embraced more krautrock and minimal electronic throbs on the Andrew Weatherall-produced No-One Can Ever Know in 2012 and Nobody Wants to Be Here and Nobody Wants to Leave in 2014. They also went on to support The Cure on tour in the US and form a firm friendship with front man Robert Smith. They signed to Rock Action Records before their fifth studio album It Won't Be Like This All the Time was released in 2019. Reduced to a duo with James Graham and Andy McFarlane in 2025, The Twilight Sad recorded the album It's a Long Goodbye, released in March 2026.