Caveats, caveats.

Tips from readers are always more than welcome, especially when they are accompanied by such semi-praise as, ‘I think one of his songs is great, but I’m not sure. And the rest – well, I’m not sure about those either.’

Thanks, anonymous reader. Nail those colours to the mast, why don’t you?

Well, with recommendations like that, what more encouragement to listen is needed? Tom Williams and The Boat were the lucky recipients of such unbridled encouragement, though I imagine they won’t be hurt by such undistinguished praise. I’ll get to that later.

Tom Williams and the Boat // Concentrate

This is a song that doesn’t just hit the ground running, it’s rushing off in a lung-bursting, sinew-stretching sprint while the rest are still tying their shoelaces.

Concentrate is the sound of a band who are either ultra-confident, or ultra-desperate to escape the drudge of normal life. If the lyrics are anything to go by, I suspect the latter.

The song is the defiant sound of an alienated soul looking into the mirror after one too many knocks and scraping up the will to continue. The moral is: concentrate hard on self-belief, because it may not come from anywhere, or anyone, else. Ooh, serious. Great stuff.

www.myspace.com/WilliamsTommusic