Anyone out there remember Space?  Most of you probably, and if you don’t then you’ll almost certainly recognise them once I point out that they are responsible for the splendid Female of the Species which Brits of A Certain Age might well remember as being the title music to reasonable TV drama Cold Feet a few years back.  That song is from Spiders, which can be picked up for a quite remarkable 44 pence on Amazon here, and they released Tin Planet a couple of years later.  This didn’t do that much either, and despite another release a couple of years ago they pretty much petered out in late 2005.

Anyhow, what I wanted to mention was one of their bigger singles from Spiders – Neighbourhood.  Apart from being an excellent song in its own right, it is also either a blatant rip-off of, accidental twin of, or affectionate homage to Tom Waits’ song In the Neighbourhood, from his 1983 classic Swordfishtrombones.  Whilst Waits’ song rather inevitably contains far more pathos and resonance, the carnival of freaks so adroitly described by Space stands up well when compared to its more heavyweight companion.

Really, this is all dressing up.  What I’m saying is: I like these two songs.  Aren’t they similar.  Yet different.  See?

Space – Neighbourhood
Tom Waits – In the Neighbourhood