TWIN CITY – SIMPLE MELODY – SINGLE REVIEW

“One of the most exciting new comers to Rock n Roll – Twin City’s new single ‘Simple Melody’ is just over four minutes of expansive, thrumming, guitars with a backbeat that seems to come out the blocks from the very first second and tirelessly gallops on.”

Twin City have been billed as one of the most exciting newcomers to Rock & Roll. To put into context just how exciting they are, the Bristol based four-piece, consisting of Welsh brothers, Louis and Toby Ellis, Pete Refson and Conor Feeney, had to have their venue upgraded for their first ever show. For their second gig, they played as main support for The Lathums to a crowd of at least a thousand people.

It’s been a busy year for Twin City. as well as releasing their very well received single, ‘I Feel Alive’, the band also played a wonderfully rumbunctious headline set at Thekla, one of Bristol’s most famous venues as well as performing not one but two sets at this year’s Isle Of Wight Festival.

Now Twin City are back with the release of their latest single, ‘Simple Melody’, recorded at Orchard Studios in Bristol and released via Bubblebrain Records. Simple Melody is just over four minutes of expansive, thrumming, guitars with a backbeat that seems to come out the blocks from the very first second and tirelessly gallops on. The track begins with a distorted slide that embodies Britpop at its finest before launching into a buoyant coming-of age melody that oozes promise. The whole arrangement of ‘Simple Melody’ yanks you in with its unbridled sanguinity and only gives respite during the turnaround, in which the guitars flit like flippers in a pinball machine and Feeney’s bass swings like a pendulum.

‘Simple Melody’ is lighter in tone compared to Twin City’s previous releases, such as ‘I Feel Alive’ or ‘Solid Gold’, but it certainly doesn’t suffer as a result. In fact, the slight step change shows us a more tender side to the band. Louis’ vocals reach high as he sings, ‘Open your arms for love to receive, it’s never going to let you down.’ This change in tone seems to have been intentional as, when speaking about ‘Simple Melody’, the band have said, “‘Simple Melody’ is about the power of music and how the right song(s) can bring us all together in spite of our differences. Inspiration for this tune were artists such as Lennon, Marley and Richard Ashcroft. With the world the way it is currently we need a bit of positivity and togetherness in music. Music can heal the world.”

But within the exuberance of ‘Simple Melody’, there’s an attitude in there that comes through most in the pre-chorus as guitars clatter. When watching Twin City, back in May of this year, at their headline show at Thekla, I vividly remember Toby almost willing his drumkit downstage and pointing his sticks to the crowd to playfully size them up. The set was a sonic blast of guitars and, as a result, ‘Simple Melody’ will fit very nicely in there when the band come to play it for upcoming shows.

I can picture people emerging from the sweaty maelstrom of the mosh pit still chanting the lyrics to ‘Simple Melody’ back to the band. Pints have been known to go flying when Twin City play… They’ll go flying for this one as well.