Tomorrow!

I know I’ve not been terribly friendly to Tip Taps Tip over the past few weeks, but I’m undeniably excited about its release tomorrow. Wandering into McDonalds on the way home from work yesterday, I heard the song come over the speakers, sandwiched in-between something I didn’t recognize and the new Ken Hirai song. It was certainly good to hear it playing there, arguably the place where a lot of the people most likely to buy the record would hang out. It was also the first time I’d heard it in public, but as I listened I couldn’t help but find a few of the old worries creeping back in.

For a song to work in a public place like that, it needs to rise above the level of all the other background music you dismiss and disrupt a conversation long enough to lodge in the brain for the few seconds it takes to hook the casual listener in. What it really needs is a forceful, memorable chorus. While I was happy to sit there and quietly sing along until the person I was with told me to shut up, I was left with the impression that the song lacks a hook strong enough to make the casual listener put their coke down and prick their ears up. It just kind of nudges past you on the way to the toilet, whereas really a ‘comeback song’ like this should have come in and pushed you right over.

Before I get too bogged down in anything too anti-TTT again, in its defence I will say that although it lacks an immediate impact, it’s a grower. More so now that the effects of the initial shock are wearing off. Although it’s obviously not going to come close to outselling that Ken Hirai song that followed it in McDonalds yesterday, it does have a certain charm lacking not only in Pop Star but also in a lot of the fluff that Halcali will be sharing the bill with on Music Station Friday night.

So the new single is out tomorrow, only 1 year and 2 months since the last one. I don’t exactly love Tip Taps Tip, but I still love this band. They’ve definitely been working hard recently, and despite having a few reservations, I really hope the record sells.