Modern music, most of it at least, is not known for its literary prowess. Pop has little to say. Indie only wants to talk about itself. Rock music is either fixated on aliens and mythical quests or just full of boorish self-aggrandizement. And don’t get me started on rap. So, as the recent single “Is Everything Okay?” kicks off this wonderfully titled new album from Tom Minor, we realize that we are in the presence of someone who actually does have something to say, plenty, in fact, knows how to communicate in everyday language, and does so with the right balance of humor and poignancy. Just what the doctor ordered.
Eleven Easy Pieces on Anger & Disappointment does what it says on the tin: an array of songs that address the stuff of everyday life, the minutaie and rituals, tackling the flotsam and jetsom of modern society and the people who have to navigate it.
“It’s The Wind, Stupid” blows us through the back streets of London and out into the Home Counties as it tells its tale of chance encounters on the night train home.“Light Heart Heavy Hand” moves away from the quirky indie-pop/musical theatre-infused sound that flits through most of the album and recasts Nick Cave as a broken down East End pub pianist, and “Goddam & Evil” seems to invent its own apocalyptic Thames Estuary blues.
“Daydreams Come True at Night,” the album’s swansong and optimistic final destination, reminds us that you can’t have it all – after all, where would you put it – but you can, and indeed should, simply cherish the things that are important to you. A Buddhist mantra manifest as quirky, nursery rhyme indie-pop. How brilliant!
If you are looking for something a bit different, something off-beat, something that revels in words, storytelling, and fun, something strange and strangely brilliant, something quintessentially English…perhaps even London-centric, something refreshingly original, something that does for music what Osborne and Amis did for the British play, then Tom Minor is your man.
