Glad To See Y'Back Again?

Or, as the back of the BBC Radio Sessions case has it, "Glod To See Y'Back Again?", reflecting all of the care and attention going into ex-label Mercury's Bluetones repackaging.

To be fair, that question mark is there for a reason, and this is a song that doesn't sound at all glad of anything. Frustration is the dominant emotion, with a side order of depressed resignation, and so in one of the Tones' cleverer early breaks with traditional structure they chase their own tail round a series of progressively small and disaffected circles. They stick to the same basic groove all the way through, but just flexibily and ponderously enough that when they pause on the verge of another return, you feel like this time they might just escape. The lyrics flag up the same dissatisfied inertia, wryly commenting 'hello again' and 'here we go again' at new turns.

Then about two thirds of the way through the escape finally does happen, when the loosely circular structure is broken with barely a teasing pause to herald it, in favour of a mini, Talking To Clarry style psychadelic guitar blowout. It's a bit of an awkward conclusion to a song whose contained nature is its main strength.