The Twang - 'Push The Ghosts'
Absolutely no points to anyone whose first reaction to this song is "blimey, that bassline sounds a bit like 'Push It' by Salt-n-Pepa" because the resemblance is not so much uncanny as it is outright blatant. Proper iron-skillet-falling-on-your-head-from-thirty-feet blatant. And that's brilliant, because as source material goes, you're unlikely to find much that's more versatile, evocative or fondly remembered (Destiny's Child sampled it a few years back for a quick riff in the middle of 'Nasty Girl' and it worked brilliantly).
The thing is, sometimes it's hard to know quite what to say about a song when the best part of it is something that reminds you so strongly of something else. So, with that in mind, I'm going to completely disregard the bass from this part onwards just to make sure it doesn't colour my judgement one way or the other.
There's a general air of retro to the song, with influences drawn from the Madchester scene of the early '90s - it wouldn't have sounded out of place on an Inspiral Carpets or a Charlatans album. The lyrics echo this, with lines like "I got a devil in me and it's pointing to the big time" giving a feeling of ambition and unrest, a failure to feel content with your lot and wanting to make more of it, which again was typical of a lot of material of the time.
But of course it's not the early '90s, it's the late '00s, so it's got to be relevant to now as well. And the brilliant thing about music is how cyclical it can be, and how anything that's gone out of fashion can come back into fashion when you're least expecting it, so I can't criticise this for sounding too 1991 because that's as valid a sphere of influence as 1975 or 1983, and I never had a go at the Killers for sounding like Duran Duran.
My problem with this really is that it just all rings a bit false - there's too much distortion on the vocals, as though implying that somehow the lyrics weren't bleak and gritty enough without it, which I don't think is true. Interestingly, I was all set to rag on this song for both sounding like 'Push It' (oh, balls) and including the word push in the title without interlinking the two somehow, until Fraser pointed out to me that it does in fact include a lyrical misquote from Salt-n-Pepa. You see? If they'd just blummin' ENUNCIATE like I asked, would I have made that mistake? No. A little more authenticity in the production would've gone a long way here, especially since the general sneering of the singing makes it indistinct as it is.
It's a shame, because there's a germ of a good idea in here. The sweeping melody of the chorus is lovely, and whether intentional or not, using 'Push It' (dammit!) as the backing for an indie lament is an inspired idea. It just never quite comes together as a whole for me, and never seems quite sure if it's trying to be its own sound or an amalgamation of several others forming some kind of tribute.
And I really, really, honestly cannot listen to it without wanting to sing "ooh baby baby, ba-baby baby" over and over again, which sort of limits any impact it might have had. Sorry, fellas, but points for effort.
Download: Out now
CD Released: November 26th
(Steve Perkins)
PS: Recognise this fella? That's right, it's Phil from the Twang back in 2005 when they were tiny-wee. And it comes from a live review by Pete Ashton in which he says more or less the exact same thing about this song as Steve does (except I think he likes it more). Also, Jon from the Twang responds in a very sweary way underneath. Isn't the internet BRILLIANT?
Comments
I quite like this actually because
a)it's great to hear a fellow Brummie singing a song and sounding really grimy
b) it's samples Push It
c) cos the nice mellow bits sounds spookily similar to the great late 90's band The Dum Dums. Army of Two was their best track(much better than Busted et al)
So basically this song is great because it sounds like lots of other things. This reviewing lark isn't so bad...