I never tire of Tom Minor’s creative dexterity, his ability to capture the fun of old-time music hall, the quintessentially English sound of The Kinks or The Small Faces, and run these qualities through a modern, quirky, power-popscape. However, even that convoluted breakdown doesn’t really get to the heart of just how unique his music is, you really need to give it a spin yourself for the full picture.
The latest, “Bring Back the Good Ol’ Boys,” shimmers with all of the aforementioned qualities, as well as sounding like a sort of Chas ‘n’ Dave sing-along repurposed from its nostalgic, East End reverie into something more suitable for a grittier, North London reality. (Sorry to the non-British readers who probably haven’t understood a word of this.)
What is easier to understand is that Mr Minor is a dab hand at metaphor. Here, the good ol’ boys being brought back, represent our unyielding ability to be taken in by the same old tricks. It echoes our philosophy that if a mistake is worth making, it is worth making time and time again, particularly when it comes to politics. You can laugh at such habits, but the next thing you know is that those harmless, jokey, populist buffoons seemlessly transform into authoritarian leaders, and the next thing you know, you are marching behind their banner, swept away on the excitement and rhetoric of it all. It’s like The Battle of Cable Street never happened! (If we had the internet in 1936, you’d all be following that nice Mr Mosely’s TikTok account!)
Few artists can match such fun music with such poignant lyricism, even when, on the surface at least, those lyrics seem nothing more than the sort of thing you can gather round the pub piano too and swill and spill your beer to as you join in the chorus. Time to wise up, folks!
