aaamusic | On 10, Jun 2012

You’d not necessarily expect a nice little June single to sound so Nick Cave, but Tom Williams & The Boat, on the ‘Too Young’ release have done just that. The A-side ‘Too Young’ is a gentle, wistful little acoustic number that skips along nicely with its pop hooks and dancey rhythm section, but the sombre violins add shadows to the proceedings, and the vocals drawl a set of musings that unfold into a pseudo-romantic decision that maybe things aren’t as clear-cut as all that, something the song itself pushes home with its mix of melancholy and sparkle. It feels a bit “yes this is our pop number” in places, but you can’t deny they can write well enough. Then we get the B-side ‘Right Side Of My Head’, where we dive straight into a dark bluesy rant that sounds like the Birthday Party playing a mid-90s MTV Unplugged session, a bleak and gritty track that holds a breathtaking poetry-slam feel to it, which escalates into an intense violin-led instrumental outro that actually turned me around from my “meh” verdict to re-listen to the A-side and see it in a new light, which for me is the hallmark of a good B-side.
Tom Williams & The Boat haven’t quite escaped the mild indie-folk-bland taint that dogged their previous material, but these tracks show a definite step forwards and a bravery and unmistakeable artistic motivation that may yet see them become a force to be reckoned with.

★★★★★

Katie H-Halinski