Now, here's a turn up for the books. An indie pop band from a genre often suspected of tweeness coming up with a couple of songs about the kind of women that normally exist in the lives of country singers.
"Lifeskills" is just a wee bit dodgy in its lyrical content and that fact is not entirely disguised by the sugary backing track. Hey, that's life that's what the people say even if it includes fortified wine, a tired mouth and the end of innocence. Life skills indeed!
Not that the flipside "My Girlfriend Tried to Run Me Over" occupies the moral high ground either. In a land of somewhat unpredictable women - oh, how well we know that - this is an anthem to taking it like a man (no, not the prison variety of taking it like a man…). In fact, the song reminded me of why I wear steel toe capped boots in the kitchen. All I did was ask her to chop and onion and she somehow (accidentally?) managed to stick a Sabatier into the floor right between my toes. Gentlemen, I know where you are coming from!
So the vocals are a bit folk singer doing a Morrissey impersonation, but these are gritty lyrics encased in a sugar coating and that makes this band stand out from the crowd. It would be well worth your while tracking this single down.
Available on vinyl (yes!) by mail order from Cloudberry Records.