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