The new download single from Super Distortion is a feel good summer affair.
Acoustic guitar, clappy drums, flutey keys, bright and airy. And it comes clearly labelled, a song for a consumerist world. An alias of Pete Bradley, Super Distortion’s latest album was very favourably reviewed by W+H and it’s hard not to view Nothing’s Free in the same light. It’s a very catchy song but also lyrically smart although “we’re not that clever”, apparently.
It has sentiment but thankfully not too much, “some people smile and some never. Some give folk the stink-eye and nobody knows why”. Walking in the park is often not the walk in the park it should be. There is a genuine love of the natural world at play here and a keen awareness of our place in it. “Just nuts and nettles in our tummies. But despite the stings and spikes, there’s no malice or dislike. Just like we’re in a world with no money”.
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There is also a sense of fun and play that comes across, perhaps best exemplified by the change in pronunciation of some words, away from the proverbial. And yet this song is in some ways a light hearted proverb.
In summary then, this is a song in the classic British pop tradition. It’s quirky, it’s whimsical and it’s catchy. A band that springs to mind is Belle and Sebastian but as Super Distortion is the work of one man I am much more enamoured of the Syd Barrett comparison. And one final thing. This is my four year old’s favourite song and that tells you something about its childlike innocence.
Pointy Bird Records
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