Staff Reviews

The Twang - Jewellery Quarter

Review by Natalie Shaw

It's Jewellery Quarter, by The Twang. They’re well lairy, right? Like Oasis, yar? Like Ocean Colour Scene, mmm-hmm? Didn't they try to date-rape the NME once?»

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one of the uk success stories of the last two years return with a new album in august. the twang were the subject of intense debate on their emergence in 2007 with the nme declaring them 'the best new band in britain' and went on to deliver two of the anthems of the year in the forms of 'either way' and 'wide awake' alongside a top 3 debut album in the shape of 'love it when i feel like this'. as they toured the uk leaving stories of varying accuracy wherever they went, the five lads from birmingham were the epitome of a rock 'n' roll band earning the undying loyalty of a huge and vocal fanbase. in the process they revitalised a uk music scene that had become a little too arch for its own good, were the subject of endless pro and anti letters in the weekly music press and, as all classic working class bands should, pissed off those who want 'safe chaos' from their artists. two years from that explosion of interest, the band return with an album that draws on those experiences, both good and bad, and marks a more mature and soulful set of songs. having avoided the classic second album syndromes of writing about tour buses or developing neuroses about their public perception, the lyrics of singers phil etheridge and saunders and bassist jon watkin deal instead with the familiar and, at times, brutally personal experiences of the band their friends and their lovers. naming the album, 'jewellery quarter', after the area rapidly becoming the cultural powerhouse of the second city and home to the band's studio, is a marker that this is very much an album made by birmingham.
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