Album: Jewellery Quarter
Artist: The Twang
Singles: Another Bus (free download), Barney Rubble
The Twang's first album, Love It When I Feel Like This, was good, but far from perfect. Catchy songs such as Either Way and Two Lovers were standout tracks, but there were bad songs such as The Neighbour and Loosely Dancing. Here, unfortunately, is pretty much the same story. But that is not to say the band have completely flunked their second album.
Took The Fun
Maracas launch the second album. It's less than epic, but this first song is catchy enough, with a good piano accompaniment. It makes you want to sing along with the "la-la-la-la-lo..." bit.
Barney Rubble
Whilst it's not the best track on the album, it was a good choice for first single. It's catchy despite its simple guitar part, and it grows on you after a few listens.
Twit Twoo
The Twang and synths, if you asked me before I heard this, would not work. I'm glad to see I was wrong. Powerful drums join the synth opening before a soft "oooh..." joins the fray. The chorus keeps up the catchiness of the start of this album.
Put It On The Dancefloor
"Ah..." begins the song, before a good rhythm begins. They seem to like to abandon lyrics in favour of ahs and ohs etc. Never mind, it's great. This song should be a single in future.
May I Suggest
Ah, that's where the brilliant, dare I say beautiful, songs like Two Lovers from album one went. This is another great track, slower than most on this album, but wonderful nonetheless.
Encouraging Sign
A quick, catchy guitar part leads this song in. The chorus is one of the best things on this album.
Got No Interest
At this point, after six great tracks, you expect a seventh. Unfortunately, this is where the album begins to sag a bit. This one's not very memorable.
Back Where We Started
This one is another bad one. The chorus isn't as catchy as others on the album, and they've copied their Either Way trick of talking in their song. Difference is, on Either Way, it worked.
Answer My Call
And now, my least favourite. An attempt to slowly build up to a great ending fails. You can hear the build up, but the song seems too much like filler on this album. It drags on for too long as well. At least the previous tracks knew to stop before four minutes.
Live The Life
Placing the worst track before the best track (this one) just makes this even better. Another simple yet great guitar part opens this song, before some more great drums and a brooding bassline. These all lead up to the greatest chorus of the album: "So live the life you love, and your life will love you..." Immensely catchy.
Williamsburg
I don't know what to make of this track. It sounds good when I'm listening to it, but afterwards I don't feel as though it was good. It has grown on me a bit, though, but it's certainly not the best.
Another Bus
Well, at least after a generally bad second half (save for Live The Life) the band close with another beautiful ending, released as a free download in May. A suitable closer.
Well, in general, this is about as good as their debut. Two differences, though; firstly, on Love It When I Feel Like This, the bad tracks were spread out (The Neighbour at #3, Loosely Dancing at #7 and Got Me Sussed at #10) whereas here they're all next to each other, which can take away some of the greatness built up in the first half.
Secondly, there is not much that you want to play over and over again (for me, only Barney Rubble and Live The Life) whereas their debut had me listening to Ice Cream Sundae, Either Way, Two Lovers and Cloudy Room over and over. Still, it's not better than their debut but not worse. So I'll give it the same score.
I'm assuming you can guess I gave their debut 7/10 as well.
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