The tenth album from Spike and co. sounds pretty much like what you’d expect from a bedraggled gypsy rock band this deep into their career. It’s standard form for 80s glam survivors, really. Once the scruff on your chin turns grey, it’s time to play the blues. Fortunately the Quireboys have been preparing for this moment since 1988 at least, and this kind of dark, smoky bo-diddlin’ fits them like a glove.
There are no weepy ballads here, but that doesn’t mean it’s a smooth ride. In fact the whole album drips with world-weary venom, from the can’t-believe-we-survived-this-long Hail Mary of opener Torn And Frayed to the big, punchy sour-apple anthem Life’s A Bitch.
Twisted Love aims for that gorgeously debauched era of the Rolling Stones when they were stupid-rich but sick and miserable, that amber-coloured purgatory between death and glory, and goddamn if they don’t nail it. Their best in a decade.
