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King Creosote

Not One Bit Ashamed

Label: 679 Recordings Release Date: 06/03/2006

12809
Rrrachel by Rachel Cawley March 3rd, 2006

Such a handsome song. Aristocratic, with its chin jutted out in stance of stoic solidarity. “It’s not good enough, it’s not good enough” he insists, in affirmative clipped Scottish syllables, hands on hips, hardened and nearly aloof. “It’s not good enough.” He has given his all to this relationship, and she hasn’t reciprocated. This is the heavy-brow haughty break-up, evidence displayed with all the oratory of the skilled lawyer on case: “I gave up half of my heart, and you gave a half-hearted shrug”. Stalwart and soldiering, tuba and piano are the regal accompaniment to such a dignified termination.

No matter how handsome and imperial a man, there will always be an element of façade. No-one can really be wholly unemotional, even Hollywood informs us of that. So as he lowers his chin to adjust his waistcoat lapel, scuffs one shoe against the other and the wind taunts his otherwise fetchingly ruffled hair; his veneer cracks for just a moment. Cries of “You’re not one bit ashamed” echo across an emptying room. It’s the sound of a slipping front and the one stray tear leaving dark eyes. A song at once solid and fragile and thus, necessary.

Special mention must go to B-side ‘Acquaintance’ and Deaf Mute’s remix of ‘The Someone Else’. Also fence collective types, they offer a complete reinterpretation of an already immaculate song. Accompanied now just by piano and violin, traversing new harmonic ideas, the song takes on airs and graces of incredible elegant mourning.

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