SANDI THOM used to be the voice of Impulse body spray.
Despite these rarefied heights she’s now slumming it as a solo artist with a record deal. Originally from Aberdeen and a graduate of The Institute of Performing Arts in Liverpool she was discovered by Orkney label Viking Legacy whilst performing in Glasgow (presumably not as an anti-perspirant deodorant). From its title her debut single ‘I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker (With Flowers In My Hair)’ suggested a witty record with a high novelty/irritation factor, something not too dissimilar to the one-off hit of that other graduate of Liverpool’s Fame Academy; Liam Lynch and his ‘United States of Whatever’.
If ‘I Wish..’ has any kind of novelty factor it is probably the sparse, near absent instrumentation which allows THOM’S vocals to dominate this folk-lite protest song. Unfortunately the effect of the bare bones arrangement and the ordinariness of the song make THOM sound like she’s auditioning for ‘X Factor’. For all its admirable desire to sound natural and unforced ‘I Wish…’ lacks any edge as does THOM’S vocals. Though undoubtedly strong and powerful her vocals are just too “nice” and her effort to be different doesn’t come off.
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Also, singing about wishing to have been a hippy in 1969 or a punk rocker in 1977 “when revolution was in the air” sounds trite coming from someone who was born in 1981. And lamenting that “I was born too late in a world that doesn’t care” shows a complete lack of understanding of those dates, as the whole point of the reactionary movements that they spawned was a response to the perception that, in simplified terms, the world at those times didn’t care.
So, rather than protesting with voyeuristic nostalgia for an era she never experienced and singing the kind of song that appears in those annoying Coke adverts (you know the one; where the woman walks down the street singing and handing out Coke) maybe THOM should get off her arse and start a revolution of her own in response to this apparently uncaring world.
The B-side ain’t up to much n’all.
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