‘Poem’ is again a track that BM has come to rather late – the best part of a year late, but it did not appear on the BM radar when it was released – so am reviewing it now! So sack me for bad timekeeping, bad reviewing or non-matching underwear, och guilty as charged…
She Drew The Gun have been emerging darkly from the waters of the River Mersey for some time now (and these waters can be quite dark!). There looks to be a Coral connection with the record label but can we just all hold fire (for the record BM is a big Coral fan) and flipping listen?
And this is a stark listen – ‘Poem’ is a paean to UK2016 (going on 17), not pretty but starts ringing bells until the entire bloody cathedral (or in the ‘Pool’s case two, facing each other) is ding-donging its heart out.
Now we don’t really do protest songs in the UK any more – did Live Aid pump the life out of them, or did we just grow too clever? Anyway, it has taken this lot to re-ignite the flame, with a minimalistic guitar pluck backing a Brookside-heavy female lead vocal enunciating a wistful but bitter view of UK which to be perfectly frank made BM cry, it is that good, stuff that you can see in BM’s hometown any hour or day of the week.
It starts with specific observations regarding homeless people – “the police getting busy cleaning up the streets” (ha, the dibble, eh?)…
Then it asks are we “far too civilised”…”to see a broken human being..?”
The sarcasm is heavy – asking “are you more comfortable doing your sightseeing”, “buying f{{{ union jack magnets and keyrings”?
There are echoes of ‘A New England’, ‘Good Technology’ and also some classic Bobby Dy, ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ possibly…
Compassion is not fashionable but this has to be heard, and with such a beautiful, plaintive and world weary vocal, this sticks so hard, and will stick…
The song continues with more excerpt from The Daily Beast, or whatever… “The markets are demanding…” but ends with some words of hope – “there is still time…”
There is! There is also an album, and hopefully live action north of the border – there is a lot more to SDTG than this song but this sounds it is a mark of intention, and it is a hugely powerful one – respect due.