Thank F**k For That, The Singing Adams Debut Single Is Bloody Great

I really hate reviewing things. Did a lot of that before. I think this, you should too, blah blah. Just seems a bit pointless these days, really.

So, I’m going to try very, very hard to make this not a review at all.

Instead, I’ll quickly jump back to a year ago, when one of my very favourite bands of the decade The Broken Family Band, decided to split up. A whopping great shame that was too. Still, I thought, I’ll get over it.

Instead, of course, I spent the next twelve months irresistably drawn back to their records, wistfully melancholy I’d not get to see them again, and generally otherwise being a bit of a twat about it all.

Still, here we are a year later, and what’s out? Only BFB’s singer’s side project Singing Adams debut full band single – I can’t tell you how glad I am he’s still there. Comforting, you know?

There were two very specific and very unusual terrific things about The Broken Family Band. In no particular order, they were:

1. They all had proper jobs, and mainly “did the band” while on holiday. One of them worked in a biscuit factory I think. Probably a good reason why they always sounded so real world to me – it’s a bit hard to take a professional musician seriously when they talk about real life.

2. They were smart without making you feel stupid, they were fucking funny without making you feel excluded from the joke, and they wrote pop songs which people who sniffily dismiss pop music tended to like very much. This is very hard to do.

The other thing I always loved was Steven Adams’ voice, all whiny and high and struggling and ever so slightly annoyed and put-upon, as close to a British Gordon Gano as we’re likely to see.

This isn’t actually the Adams’ first release – a friend bought me the EP that surfaced in 2009, largely featuring Adams himself, a guitar and some very quiet songs that contained some occasionally virulent swearing. I enjoyed it hugely.

This is the full-bore, full-time and full-band debut single though, and it’s as enjoyably off-kilter as you’d guess. Often dumped into an alt-country bucket on the back of various past records, this is much less so, with a touch of the military on both songs, a stomping, ordered chug and clunk that underpins things, offset by Adams’ vocal and some crafty guitar lines that swap between some trilly acoustic and some very picky and fuzzy little lines. I can’t tell you how relieved I am about this.

You see, if I’d found out they were terrible, I’d have been unbearable to be around, worse than I am now with this endless bastard snow and ice.

But no, like a little early Christmas present, Singing Adams are finally among us on actual record, and HELL yes, they are exactly the sort of chuffing marvellous, wonkily endearing and adorable little sweethearts I’d hoped they’d be. Another eight years of this? Oh, yes please.

The single I Need Your Mind is out now – buy it here

There’s also a demo song floating about called Injured Party that some div decided to put up onto and then take off Spotify. It’s still up on their (yuk spit) Myspace, so listen to that too because it’s a cracker

Further Reading:

Singing Adams – site | myspace | facebook | twitter