He’s free. Free to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants. And for some time now, Sean Dickson‘s definition of freedom has involved making unequivocally average music. He did it with The Soup Dragons – memorably, they ‘baggied up’ the [a]Stones[/a]’ ‘I’m Free’ – and these days, perhaps not so memorably, the object of his passion is The High Fidelity.
And tonight, his enthusiasm doesn’t stop there. Sean‘s written a song called ‘I Want To Thank You’ and that’s right, he wants to thank us, the six dozen or so stood in front of him, for just being here. Or, on second thoughts, given its cod-Motown bombast, maybe he just wants to thank the Soul Greats for giving him inspiration. Either way, what a guy.
But it’s not all a completely futile exercise in rehashing the forgotten indie hits of yesteryear. Occasionally, Dickson‘s once-bright past betrays the lumpen High Fidelity method and from out of these four blokes leaps a shimmering streak of genuine pop greatness. There are approximately two moments like this. One is ‘Luv Dup’, the first single which daytime radio DJs would have described as ‘naggingly catchy’; the other, current Smiths-a-like single ‘2 Up/2 Down’, which daytime radio DJs are indeed as we write describing as ‘naggingly catchy’.
These days, truly, that’s often as good as it gets.