Clear As Mud

Brian's got a new single! Brian's got a new single!

Okay, so he had one almost a month ago, but it took ages for my copy to arrive in the post. But it DID go to number one in the UK, so I can forgive him a little bit for being too busy to deliver my late copy directly to my doorstep.

It's called Like Only A Woman Can, and the title alone conjures up all sorts of weird, hetero-erotic images, but it's actually not a bad song. Very pretty, in an acoustic sort of way, and even if he did write it for Delta, at least we don't have to listen to her. And lyrically, it's very sweet and non-threatening without being sickly and poppy. Okay, it's a little sickly. But his voice is still raspily gorgeous and carries the song with enough emotion for it not to matter

The b-side, on the other hand, is another little ripper from Mr McFadden. Musically it's kind of an upbeat version of Walking Into Walls. A bit sad, but uplifting at the same time, and the lyrics are fantastically surreal. I'm actually not sure what he's singing about, and the title - Mud In Your Eye - doesn't really help. I'll take a wild guess and say it's about how much he hates the music industry. Again. Not that it really matters, because it's a great little pop-rock-kinda-folky ballad that progresses from bittersweet to weirdly uplifting in the space of four minutes and twenty-three seconds

Good old Brian. I can't wait for the new album, if this is any indication of its quality.