Leeds based Nervous Twitch have released their sixth album The Day Job Gets In The Way via Spinout Nuggets. The title itself resonates instantly and the trio of Erin Hyde (vocals, bass guitar), Jay Churchley (guitar, backing vocals) and Chris Cooper (drums) must feel this constantly, such is the struggles of the business of music at the moment. But this is not an album wallowing, far from it. It shows exactly what can be achieved when you don’t let the day job get in the way.
Opener‘Don’t Get In Touch’ is a defiant 2 minute scuzzy blast of self-assured attitude. The edgy punky instrumentation is tight and the message is clear: “Yeah boy, don’t get in touch! Yeah, you got my number but, don’t call me up!”. The theme continues on ‘Game You’re Playing’ :
“I won’t play the game you’re playing
Stealing ideas the words you’re saying
Selling your soul for a piece of the whole
You try to keep up but you’re losing control”
Title track ‘The Day Job Gets In The Way’ draws the listener in with its build up before sparking into life. An instantly relatable sentiment, the bright and breezy delivery with that scuzzy guitar is a delight. The vocals of Hyde are reminiscent of The Slits with the punky yet jaunty delivery, and the final feedback on the outro only reinforces the frustrations.
Weary resignation is obvious on ‘Knitting With Anger’, the pace is plodding as if worn down by a relationship that probably needs to end: “How long, how long, how long Can we go on.” This is followed by the snappy ‘Love 4 Me 2.’ which lifts both the pace and the mood. It’s opening crisp percussion alongside the bassline bounces along beautifully with a lightness of touch. The tongue in cheek lyrics are a joy:
“From the grimmest town in the England
to the hills of Hollywood
Would you say that you’ve got love for me too.”
This pointed humour continues on ‘Funny Bones’ : “Oh no, I just don’t get the joke”. The lyrics are laugh out loud funny and ‘Funny Bones’ is placed mid-album, exactly where it belongs.
‘Some People Have It All’ is a gem. Short, sharp and snappy. It makes its point in under a minute and to draw it out any longer would have lost its charm. The pressures how we “should” look and behave are exacerbated in our contemporary society by social media. Perfection is impossible to attain, as Nervous Twitch cleverly express:
“Too nice too shy
Too good to let it by
Too fast too slow
Far too much ego
Too pop too punk
You eat too much junk
Too fat too thin
Put those thoughts in the bin”
‘My Mum’s An Anarchist’ opens with the sound a march in progress, and the intriguing lyrics and punchy punky delivery make this one of the highlights of The Day Job Gets In The Way. What a way to get ideas across, using a song to state what Mum does and how she behaves but with the most genuine of intentions, after all:
“My mum’s an anarchist and she don’t know it
She hates politicians says their hypocrites
Their values are skewed and their narcissistic
They make mistakes and they never admit it.”
‘Rolling With The Punches’ is Rock n Roll, Nervous Twitch style and what fun it is. Again the punky vocal delivery alongside the Rock n Roll instrumentation simply oozes positive vibes. ‘You Really Let Me Down’ however expresses disappointment and frustration, the initial slow pace with an emotive guitar riff, ramping up as the exasperation builds. Being let down over and over again is portrayed with the repetition in the lyrics, until the abrupt end perhaps expressing enough is enough.
“I guess I should have known
There’s some things you cannot change
I’d tell you where to go
You’d say I’m in your way
Your narcissistic, selfish ways are driving me insane”
‘The Man With His Head In The Sand’ has a different vibe. More considered it tells of a man who simply lives in his own world with little empathy for anyone or anything around him. This is a hint of melancholy here, a sense that he is missing out on so many aspects of life.
“Never stop to smell the flowers
Or listen to The Birds
He turns his nose up at good advice
because it’s nothing that he ain’t heard”
Such observation continues on ‘Alright John’ with its lyrics which are thought-provoking. The spikey pace describes a character while the layering of the vocals create a slightly ominous tone alongwith the guitar. Is this a dangerous character one would not want to cross?
At just over 3 and a half minutes, final track ‘Minor Characters’ is the longest track on The Day Job Gets In The Way. It questions the narrator’s place in a relationship, admitting: “I don’t know where I fit in.” The heavy guitar adds to the anxiety alongside the deadpan vocal which expresses a feeling of being lost within their own story.
“I’m just a bit part in the story of your life
An out cast understudy claiming they’ve got rights
A minor character written out of the script
An inferior to your superiority”
Nervous Twitch live and breath music and on this their sixth album they have created a body of work which looks both inward and outward, singing tales of joy and feelings of frustration, with sharp character observations. It is an album exuding confidence, not afraid to express the difficult whilst also bringing their own type of punk charm to observe the world around them.
For more information on Nervous Twitch please check their facebook and instagram.
