CityLife

Twisted Wheel - She's a Weapon (Columbia)

"EVER get the feeling you've been cheated?" A simply question posed by John Lydon at the Pistols Winterland Frisco gig in '78.

With the promo blurb that accompanies Twisted Wheel's new single, She's A Weapon, it is hard not to ask the very same.

Layered on thicker than Dale Winton's fake tan, the plugger's spin sends the hyperbole breathalyzer off the scale - preparing us for a smorgasbord of sound suggestive of The Who, The Clash, The Jam and The Fall!

Founded only a year or so ago in Oldham and recently signed to Columbia Records - a label that gave us everything from Judas Priest to Elvis Costello, Twisted Wheel don't need illusory comparisons to yesterdays icons to make their mark and have built their buzz around an edgy and hungry northern sound.

She's A Weapon is a sterling example of this - bruising in at two minutes and thirteen seconds, brimming with melody and sticking two fingers up to much of the musical mediocrity around them.

Neither apocalyptic nor nihilistic - this isn't punk, but is a shot detonated in the right direction. Twisted Wheel are the real deal and She's A Weapon will undoubtedly break the band into bigger and better things.

Released on April 21

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