SIMPLE Kid is, take your pick, the new Badly Drawn Boy, this year's Beck or the best wordplay wit since Morrissey.
Labels can be a hindrance, but then again calling yourself Simple Kid is only adding another tag! Simple Kid is Irishman Ciaran McFeely, a cocksure yet self-conscious contradiction in his 20s, with a past in a raucous Cork band.
A simple kid he isn't, although he makes everything look absurdly easy, maybe too easy, as he restlessly switches from falsetto to baritone and hops from Britpop to Kinks, trip hop to funk, while spinning street-wise lyrics that are humorously cynical but too arch.
His saucy lip is refreshing; the tendency to meddling overstatement less so. Clarkesville, the alias for Walsall songsmith Michael Clarke, is a more straightforward troubadour fond of Dylan, Neil Finn and America's West Coast pop.
Personal and honest, where Simple Kid is a crafty, evasive wag, his understated guitar and piano ballads are quietly yet hugely promising. Roll on the Complete Chapter.
Updated: 08:41 Thursday, September 18, 2003
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