Pop review: Twisted Wheel, Twisted Wheel

2 / 5 stars

This Manchester outfit can boast Paul Weller as a patron - but that's no guarantee of quality, considering his recent passion for the similarly generic Rifles. What did he see in Twisted Wheel that made him offer them a support slot on his next tour? You can only assume he discerned something of his younger self in their energy and lack of pretension, and that led him to excuse their many weaknesses. Their debut album features brutally basic guitars and Saturday-night shouting, which only works when the tune they're beating the life out of is catchy enough to withstand it; the swaggering Bad Candy, for instance, is just about OK. And as far as saying something, compare "I leave to go and have a piss/ Go and get some cream to soothe my painful blisters" with Weller's impassioned "All that rugby puts hairs on your chest". There is no comparison.