Wednesday 22 January 2014

Withered Hand - Horse Shoe (Fortuna Pop!)

And just as quickly as this song grab your heart, rips it out of your body and stamps on it... it picks it up and kisses it better again.

'Horse Shoe' is the sort of soul-stirring, draining, joyous, happy, sad, FUCKING FANTASTIC four minutes that comes along in song form once or twice a year. It's a tune that you can listen to with a group of friends on the best night of your life, or completely alone on the worst.

Quite what it's about is open to interpretation. Have Withered Hand written a song about losing a loved one way before their time? Is this about a lost romance? Could it all be a metaphor for something else altogether? It's really up to you to make your own mind up on this one - Dan Willson's done all the hard work, you need to put a shift in.

Over on the b-side 'Not Another Sunny Day' is a prime piece of melancholic pop, which seems almost lightweight compared to its majestic partner on the a-side, but that's to do it an injustice. It'd make a perfect lead track any other time.

As January drags winter through another week of horror stories from our wonderful masters in Westminster, then 'Horse Shoe' offers something in desperately short supply at the moment: solidarity. A song to rally around - on every political level. I hate to use the word anthem, but that's really what it is. An anthem for hope. Grab it.



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