This week my mini-rant is even more tenuously linked to music than usual. In fact it’s not music at all but poetry, and the work of Tim Key, who I saw doing a warm up gig earlier this week in prep for the Edinburgh festival.
The reason it is acceptable for me to mention him in a music blog is that he did recently release an album called Tim Key. With A String Quartet. On a Boat. The music in the background is actually remarkably good, especially considering the inevitable distraction caused by the other two things that feature in the album title.
Tim and his poems have a very eerie calmness to them, they are even oddly comforting at times, like being told a series of very strange, often unpleasant bedtime stories. His ability to say such dark things in such a pleasant way is extraordinary and quite unsettling. It’s like trying not to laugh when you hear a toddler accidently swear. Having spent the last two days laughing to myself every time I think of him and his show, I suggest you make the utmost effort to go and see him.
Tom Ravenscroft’s radio show is on BBC 6 Music every Friday at 9pm
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