Love It When I Feel Like This

Being touted as the future of indie music and the next big thing, by the music media is a difficult thing to live up to and the debut album by The Twang, Love It When I Feel Like This arrived in mid 2007 with a lot to prove, but after crashing into the charts at no.3, it quickly plummeted downwards. Produced by Gavin Monaghan at the Magic Garden studios in Wolverhampton it followed the pattern set by the singles "Wide Awake" and "Either Way" with lead guitarist Stuart Hartland sounding like The Edge of U2 and the jangly background guitars are The Happy Mondays circa 1989 particularly on the opening track "Ice Cream Sunday" and "Loosely Dancing." Phil Etheridge wrote about life as he saw it from the working class streets of Birmingham with humour throughout, reminiscent of fellow Brummie Mike Skinner of The Streets, chronicling the ordinary life of lad culture, going out shopping during the day and clubbing by night. There are influences from many guitar led rock bands including Oasis, The Smiths and even Big Country on the track "Push The Ghosts." Virtually all lads use swearing to emphasize their thoughts but as always it loses its impact when used to excess as on the track "The Neighbour." Etheridge also showed he had an ear for a good melody on the track "Don't Wait Up." ~ Sharon Mawer

海の向こうでは、オアシスのリアム・ギャラガーやカサビアンのトム・ミーガン級の歌い手と評されているフィル・エスリッジ。彼の率いるバンドのデビュー作が登場した。マッドチェスター・ライクなグルーヴにストリーツ以降のストリート・ヴァイブを巧みに乗せつつ、歌心はあくまで湿度の高いUKらしさを残している点がニクイ。生まれるべくして生まれた新世代クロスオーヴァー。ロック好きなら無視できない存在だ。
bounce (C)平塚 望