In depth Twisted Wheel album review

In depth Twisted Wheel album Review

by Scruff on http://www.oasisteria.com/

Twisted Wheel - Twisted Wheel Album Review4 05 2009 Twisted Wheel are a three piece band from a Manchester satellite town named after a famous Manchester nightclub prominent on the late 60’s Northern Soul scene. The music on their self title debut album isn’t of course Northern Soul but these are songs are songs to touch the souls of any Northern heart, these are satellite songs beamed in from growing up on the outskirts of the music capital of the world. Twisted Wheel are the latest band in the lineage that gave us such great debut albums as “Stone Roses” and “Definitely Maybe”, and whilst it may not yet be on the same plateau as those two great milestones at times it comes close. The latter album is definitely the blueprint. Twisted Wheel have the Gallagher backing already, Liam has waxed lyrical about them in interviews, Noel has compared singer Jonny Brown to his good mate Paul Weller, and the two bands recently toured together. Oasis don’t give their backing to any old crap. Twisted Wheel have the X factor, and by X factor I mean that little something special you cant put into words, they might never get a Christmas number 1 with these songs, but Britain’s got talent if its producing bands like Twisted Wheel. Ironically the album starts of with the only reference to Manchester or Oasis being the belligerent nature of the song. Beginning with a Supergrass type intro “Lucy The Castle” is a hedonistic tale of lust that manages to sound like Husker Du covering The Jam’s “This Is The Modern World”, its an instant classic and an opener that tells you to sit up and take notice of the album. Following a 2 minute punk blast “she’s a weapon” are 2 songs that are the real statement of intent on this record, and where the obvious parallels with the Oasis debut are drawn. Recent single “We Are Us” has a slow paced intro that soon mutates into the band announcing their arrival and that they don’t give a fuck who likes them or not, its an attitude shared by songs such as “Rock N Roll Star” and “Cigarettes & Alcohol” from the Oasis masterpiece. Even better and a real album highlight is “Oh What Have You Done”. This song is pure vitriol, and in your face manifesto with a Sex Pistols riff and an arrogant carefree lyric that tells you this band just know…. They just know “there’s people trying to destroy me/and they don’t even know me/I am ten times what they are/I know things they will never know”. it’s a mantra for any back street poet who ever dared to dream, or any bedroom rock star playing guitar into the mirror knowing one day that mirror will be a stadium. The chorus of “oh what have you done you dirty rock n roller” is the hook that will lodge in your brains all summer. But it’s the satellite towns that are the continuing theme of the 36 minute lifespan of the album. Two songs in particular are tales of Manchester Kitchen sink estates set to a London Calling soundtrack. “Bouncing Bomb” introduces us to characters like American Steve a kid scaring bus driver, and John, a CD dealing landlord that is just an updated Mr Sifter for the bootlegging slumdog millionaires, there’s also echoes of The Beatles “Eleanor Rigby” in the songs sentiment. “Strife” isn’t quite in the same league as its bookmark, but its still an enjoyable little tale. Central in the track listing are two urban hymns for the weekend, the Morrissey like rockabilly of “Let Them Have It All” and “Bad Candy” a Digsys Dinner type punk popper that serves as the comedown to the previous days excesses “Monday morning on the floor/calling out for more and more”, the song like the sentiment is something you want to over indulge in Towards the end now are the two songs that set this debut apart from the pretenders “You Stole The Sun” is simply brilliant, probably most peoples first taste of Twisted Wheel when released as a single but still the ultimate highlight of the record. it’s a frenetic piece of Manc Boogie with a Dylanesque lyric of a jilted lover who kidnaps the sun from the sky and holds it hostage in his wardrobe, if he’s gonna feel the dark encroaching then so is everyone else, but the song itself is rainbow coloured its this albums psychedelic supersonic. A band that can write a song as fantastically imaginative as this are not ordinary. And so to the closer “Whats Your Name” this is where the band recap whats gone before them and drop the attitude, time to let other people into Twisted Wheel world now whilst asking as Daltry once did “who the fuck are you”, its an anthemic slow burner that ends with the words “nice to meet you” over a looped Johnny Marr style guitar. And that’s where we leave Twisted Wheel, sentiments agreed, nice to meet you too. Wherever they go next is up to them. Maybe like Oasis they will leave the satellite towns behind and whilst its still less than definite it is a fantastic starting point Scruff’s Rating:8.5/10