I love Tom Minor. Over only a few releases, I have warmed to his music, songs that feel like little plays in their own right, strange stories or quirky thought processes, and which sound like hybrids of art-pop and musical theatre, long forgotten Kinks tracks and Noel Coward musical monologs.
Even amongst his brilliantly quirky body of work, “Future Is an F Word” stands out from the pack, a strange mix of 1920s music hall entertainment and 2020 sentiments – alluding to the decline of a romantic relationship or perhaps humanity’s inability to address the most crucial issue of our times – climate change – and most probably a bit of both.
Whilst such music might not seem fashionable, it is vital, in the same way, that catwalk designs aren’t seen in the High Street, but that isn’t to say that the designers behind them aren’t influencing what the man or woman in the street wears.
And so it is that the music that Tom Minor makes reminds us that it is okay to do things differently, to blend music in less than predictable ways, to hop genres, and to weave sounds and styles together. If he is not precisely storming the barricades, he is at least showing us how to navigate around them. And who knows how far out this music is reaching and who it is influencing?
“Future Is an F Word” is a great song, and like nothing else, you will have heard this week, this month…perhaps even this decade unless you have been playing your parent’s old Richard Stilgoe albums, something that more people should do.
