Nine Feet Underground

It's been five years since Tame Impala's previous excellent album, 'Currents', so the latest album has been eagerly anticipated. Kevin Parker has been in demand ever since 'Currents' and has written songs with a variety of artists and also been involved as producer on a number of albums, so he's not exactly been resting.  Back in March 2019 the first new song emerged, 'Patience', which seemed to augur well for what was expected later in the year. 'Patience' is a funky ballad which wouldn't have sounded out of place on 'Currents', though it did up the disco/dance vibe a notch or two, but I'm cool with that. It certainly upped the anticipation for the new album - so far, so good. This was followed up in April by 'Borderline' which came as something of a surprise. How so? Weeeell, as songs go, this was pretty limp. I listened to it over and over in the hope of finding something, but found an empty centre wit...

A lot of people seem to go to gigs to hear the headline act, but nothing more (not to mention those who don't seem to go to hear the music at all?)  I'm  always keen to hear the support, especially if I've never heard of them as you never know what you'll find. And so I found myself at the front of the stage in SUB89 waiting for Tom Hickox to take to the stage. Never heard of him or heard anything by him, so looking forward to hear what he does. As the hour of 8pm arrived, he took to the stage and seated himself behind a large electric piano, joined by Sam Grimley on various guitars. From his opening number, I was struck by his voice - he really has presence on stage. For the first song or two I just thought, 'yeah, he sounds OK, but...', and wasn't really drawn in. A couple of songs had great stories behind them, and his spoken intros to 'The Lisbon Maru' and 'The Dubbing Artist' were intriguing.  The song that really land...