Song, by Toad

This is so late a post on these lads as to be almost entirely pointless.  But this blog isn’t just about news or being at the most cutting of edges, it’s just me rambling about stuff when it occurs to me, so apologies to the news chas… actually, there’s no news chasers reading this in a million years are there?  What was I thinking?

Anyhow, I’m at work at half midnight, and I’ve been listening to The Waiting Room’s Tom Waits fest so it seemed as good a time as any to post about this excellent little single.  I mean little quite literally too, as my copy is on one of those tiny little mini CD thingies.  Nicely done, I thought.

The reason for the Waits business is that, although I obviously can’t post Forever on the Edge itself (preview on MySpace), the song the label have made available as a promo track is a Waitsified interpretation of that song – the last song on this four track single.  It’s ingenious really, and actually a thoroughly good impression.  And really, if you cover a Waits song you always end up doing a lesser job than the great man himself, so I think this is a splendid way to express your allegiance.

The rest of the CD contains the excellent single itself – a pretty standard but nevertheless highly satisfying bit of scratchy indie, with bounce and charisma.  The second track Conversational Karate is not so splendid, although the lyrics are as clever here as they are on the other songs.  But then Orderly Queue is a really good track as well, so all in all I’d say this is a pretty sound investment.

Honestly, I don’t know what to tell you about this that can explain it any more than that.  This is absolutely off-the-peg indie-pop with a bit of growl and crackle, a nice central conceit, spoken verse and a spiky, catchy chorus.  It may be standard but it’s bloody well done, and I really like this track.  If they can keep this sort of thing up, they should be well worth keeping an eye on.

4 or 5 Magicians – Tom Waits Blues

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