Simple Kid - Serotonin / The Ballad Of Elton John (Country Gentlemen)
UK release date: 2 October 2006
The UK's answer to Beck returns with this lead single from his forthcoming second album (Simple Kid 2). Building on his Casio carboot style, the Kid (aka Ciaran McFeely) is on fine form on this double A-side. Despite losing some of the charity shop charms of his gleeful debut, there's another side to the Kid on display here.
The Ballad of Elton John rolls along like a rustic, glam-rock glitter-covered tractor, ploughing the same furrow of ramshackle hippy-hop that The Beta Band turfed up a while ago. Unfortunately it's quite a tame swipe at "all the usual celebrity wankers," even though it is sown over a deliriously rich country stomp of banjos and clattering drums.
Serotonin is a more downbeat number on the downside of fame and "how some chemicals flow to your soul." It rides woozy string samples like an epic Grandaddy track full of mellotrons and lush cascading melodies. The Kid has grown and he's not so simple, but he's all the better for it.
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