Words by Nick Mee. @Nickjmee
It wasn’t the toughest decision to feature This Is The Kit’s ‘Silver John’ on Lost In The Manor, nor was it our most adventurous one. After all, it’s one of several beautiful tracks on band lynchpin Kate Stables’ ‘Bashed Out’ album, released earlier this year on Brassland. And now it has a subtle, lo-fi video to match the tune’s unflustered, laconic ease.
Though the root-note strummings that carry ‘Silver John’ may have the whiff of the indie anthem about them – seemingly the sort of blank canvas that your Coldplays and Snow Patrols use to layer on the MOR heartstring-tug-by-numbers – listen closer and there’s a composite of swirling instrumentation and subtle harmonics packed into ‘Silver John’’s backing. And that’s before we get to the effortlessly comforting timbre of Stables’ folksome vocal, bringing serenity to lyrics that actually contemplate the apocalypse, or, if that’s too much of a juxtaposition for you, find her just “mulling over the way of the human". Hear ‘Silver John’ and more from ‘Bashed Out’ when This Is The Kit tour the UK later this year (dates below).
See This Is The Kit Live:
Tues 24 Nov – The Haunt, Brighton
Weds 25 Nov – Scala, London
Thurs 26 Nov – Leaf, Liverpool
Fri 27 Nov – The Greystones, Sheffield
Sat 28 Nov – Lantern, Bristol
Sun 29 Nov – The Railway Inn, Winchester