The Twang Love It When I Feel Like This Review f5c6r

How many times do you reckon the phrase, 'the next big thing', 'Britain's best new band or the 'the best album since Definitely Maybe' has been coined in the music press over the last year? Don't you just wanna pummel the writer to death with a samurai sword every time that happens? Unfortunately The Twang are the latest working class heroes to find themselves lumped in with such ridiculous terminology.

Bigged up by everyone from Noel Gallagher to Terry Wogan, it's been almost impossible to escape the buzz swarming around this lot ever since they signed a whopping record deal with B-Unique (Kaiser Chiefs, The Automatic) last December. With murmurings of the next Happy Mondays, infamous tales about samurai swords and bar room brawls leaking out of Brum, The Twang’s ever growing laddish reputation has continued to swell at pace.

After gate-crashing the charts with the hook laden U2-esque belter "Wide Awake", the Bimingham band’s debut Love It When I Feel Like This has landed just in time for the festival season. So does it really live up to the hype? Obviously the haters won't think so as they continue to decry the Brummie band as mere baggy copyists. Yet while their anthemic sound does have a certain whiff of The Streets, The Happy Mondays, Flowered Up, The Stone Roses and Oasis, the great thing about The Twang is they've got the tunes to back up their cocksure swagger.

Take current single ''Either Way'' for instance. Come Glastonbury every beered up festival-goer is gonna be hugging their mates and chanting "I love ya!" to the hairstanding sound of frontman Phil Etheridge's heart wrenching vocals while Martin Saunders (Brum's answer To Bez) croons "I feel so better today/Chase the bad things away". Likewise the groovy lad stomp of "Ice Cream Sundae" and the pulsating "Push The Ghosts", all coloured in by Stu Hartland's swaggering guitar licks, are likely to send limbs flailing across the whole of Worthy Farm when they're finally unleashed on the masses.

So what's bad about Love It When I Feel Like This? Well the lyrics for a start. While Etheridge's vocals may nod towards messieurs Skinner and Ryder, they lack the same razor sharp wit which made his forefathers so great particularly on stand out singles "Wide Awake" ('Feels like my teeth are pouring out/ From all the gibberish that's been pouring out my mouth') and "Either Way" ('Cuz it's always your favourite top you bin/ but think man it could have been your skin').

Aside from that, Love It When I Feel Like This is littered with songs you just wanna hug your mates to. For that you've gotta love The Twang.