Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	(80/100)
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
Artrocker
Clash	(8/10)
Drowned in Sound	(10/10)
The 405	(8/10)
The Line of Best Fit	(8.5/10)
musicOMH
Paste Magazine	(8.4/10)
Pitchfork	(5.8/10)
Pop Matters	(8/10)
Q
The Quietus	(very favourable)
The Skinny
Tiny Mix Tapes

Nobody Wants to Be Here and Nobody Wants to Leave is the fourth studio album by Scottish indie rock band The Twilight Sad, released by FatCat Records on 27 October 2014. The album was released to overwhelmingly positive reviews, with Allmusic summarising the album as "The Twilight Sad transform everything that came before into some of their most compelling music. By blending the extremes of their previous albums, they give intimate moments an epic scope in ways that sound truly revitalized... Equally desolate and majestic, Nobody Wants to Be Here and Nobody Wants to Leave's naked emotions and sophisticated music mark a new high point for the Twilight Sad."

In an interview with Contactmusic.com, guitarist/producer Andy MacFarlane explained that with Nobody Wants to Be Here and Nobody Wants to Leave, the band aimed to capture all the different forms their music has taken over the years, from "full on noise/feedback, to a sparse, synth led sound, to a stripped back set up with just keys, drum machine and guitar, to playing with an orchestra, and to just an acoustic with vocal." The album was produced at Mogwai's Castle of Doom Studios in Glasgow, and engineered by live soundman Andrew Bush. The album was mixed by Peter Katis, who also mixed the band's debut album Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters, and The Twilight Sad's touring member Johnny Docherty played bass. Lead singer James Graham stated in the interview that, "We spent a lot of time at home when writing this new record, we got to hang out with old friends and get back to some sort of normality, which I think really helped me clear my mind and focus in on writing these new songs... I had a lot I wanted to get off my chest and I've done that with this new record."

Initially, Graham admitted to approaching the record as being the band's last album. He explained to The Skinny interviewer Jazz Monroe, "Since the start I've been an overthinker, but we went through a particularly rubbish year before writing these songs. Things weren't going too well for us, on numerous levels." In the same interview, MacFarlane added, "I loved doing the first two albums, but by the third, we were so run down and nothing was working out. At that point, we couldn't see beyond our next album." In an interview with independent music site GoldFlakePaint, Graham cited years of constant touring surrounding the album as a cause of strain for the band. "When you're constantly touring it can be really hard coming back because it's only ever for a wee bit and then you're away again. It's a weird frame of mind to be in. I definitely think I lost it a bit too; in that gap between the first and the fourth record", he stated. "The year preceding the writing of [the album] was tough ... We weren't working with the right people. It wasn't a good time for us. We were kind of questioning if we were going to do this again." Graham remarked that the recording process was uncomplicated, though, with he and MacFarlane working in unison and being "totally on the same page" with the album's direction. He added, "There's been a lot of faith shown in our band. There's Mogwai, how they've helped us out, and even bands like Frightened Rabbit, Chvrches – these people constantly talk about our music. We seem to be a band that bands like, but I genuinely think this record's a statement: not to prove people wrong, but to prove people right. ... I want to prove it to other people as well. I'm proud of all the records, but this one, although it keeps the same ethos, it can reach new people. I can categorically say these won't be the last songs I write. These songs, to me, proved I have a lot more to say. Writing these songs with Andy showed me how much I need this in my life. The thought of not doing it anymore terrifies me."

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