Review by Tony Rounce

You won’t need me to tell you that it’s been a tough year for all musicians, and it’s a miracle that any music has been created at all, given the circumstances. It must be particularly tough for those singers and bands who are waiting to debut new albums but who prefer to wait till they can tour them. Such is the case with LW favourites Nervous Twitch, who completed a new album nearly 10 months ago and who have been waiting patiently to unleash it ever since.

Now under the umbrella of Reckless Yes records, the affable Leeds-based trio have thrown caution to the wind and decided to drop their second new single of 2020 on Friday the 13th.  After the slight surprise of employing synthesisers on the first one  ‘Keeping Faith In Something’, the trio is back on more familiar ground with the guitar driven ‘Tongue Tied’.  One of the first songs the band completed for what will now be their 2021 album on Reckless Yes, it has already been ‘road tested’ in the band’s past few gigs before lockdown to highly favourable response – so it’s fair to assume that they are onto a winner here.

‘Tongue Tied’ is indeed classic Twitch, its introspective verses married to a huge sing-along chorus to make perfect 21st century music that both looks over its shoulder at the trio’s musical influences, and forward to a time when we can all get out and jump around gleefully to our old and new favourite bands again.  Full of personality in real life, singer/bassist Erin Van Rumble is cast in the song as a shrinking violet who “ always find(s) the music comes much easier than words’, her plaintive vocals pushed along as always by Jay Churchley’s unfussy guitar and Ashley Goodall’s rock solid drumming. A song you can and will sing along with, and a proper pop record from a proper pop group. Who could ask for more than that? Its two and a half minutes are over all too quickly, and you will want to play it again while you enjoy the fab graphic video…

The two songs that we’ve been granted access to so far suggest that the album is on course to be their best yet.   Word from within Twitch HQ is that it will be out literally as soon as they are able to tour to support it.  I, for one can’t wait for that to happen. And if they have to release a few more singles as good as this one in the meantime, you’ll get no complaints from me…

‘Tongue Tied’ is available to stream and download from November 13th on all the usual audio platforms (Bandcamp, Spotify etc.)

You can follow Nervous Twitch on Facebook and Instagram – and you should!