The Music Magazine review Twisted Wheel debut album

Twisted Wheel – yet again a band representing the sound of Northern Youth. Before you groan, however, and claim that you’ve heard it all before, from the Monkey’s et al. just take a listen to the Manchester band’s debut album – you might be surprised. Whilst undoubtedly Twisted Wheel are an indie band in the vein of the Arctic Monkeys, the View, the Courteeners, the Enemy, and (dare I say it?) the Pigeon Detectives and Little Man Tate, they differ greatly from their contemporaries in that they have achieved that rare feat – a truly primitive punk album, whose greatest influences – the Jam, the Clash, the Who, Lou Reed, can be heard throughout. The most modern aspect of Twisted Wheel is that lyrically every song tells a gritty tale of Northern street life. What singer Jonny Brown lacks in romanticism it makes up for in a poignant, observational tone dripping with sardonic humour. Take recent single You Stole The Sun – not the romantic tale about falling in love you would expect – it is literally a song about a bloke nicking the sun, complete with the lyric “I went and got a ladder and I got it back again”. Album closer What’s Your Name is a poignant modern love story, telling tales of sex in back alleys. For all the modern Monkeyness of the lyrics, however, musically Twisted Wheel is pure vintage. From the lo-fi production to the frantic guitars and savage vocals, everything about this album screams punk. Jonny Brown spits out lyrics like a young Gallagher, or even a young Rotten. Album opener and high-point Lucy The Castle couldn’t sound more like 70s Bowie or Reed if it tried. She’s A Weapon is brilliantly angry, and One Night On The Streets has a funky feel. The album’s best track You Stole The Sun is a primitive rockabilly number. The pace of the album slows down on Strife , the closest the album comes to an anthem, and Bouncing Bomb, a beautiful, melodic, almost psychedelic track which would not sound out of place on the last two Oasis albums (and that is not a bad thing, in my opinion). Only once do Twisted Wheel resort to indie-by-numbers on Let Them Have It All, which sounds very much like the View, but even this is saved by a energetic, sing-a-long chorus. What is so great about this album is that it marries two completely different eras of music brilliantly- modern Northern indie and punk – and because of this sounds like a breath of fresh air. reviewed by Laura Rodwell for The Music Magazine