Sandi Thom - CD review

POP

Now that everyone’s getting a bit bored with the whole ‘marketing hype or not’ argument over Sandi Thom’s webcasts (let’s face it, which musician has ever been a chart success without hype?), people are finding new ways to have a dig at the poor girl. ‘Tell some jokes,’ she asked desperately of the crowd during an extended technical hitch. ‘We love you, KT’, retorted a wide-o at the back. Thom looked gracefully pissed-off at that one.

The truth is, as far as MOR singer-songwriters go, Sandi Thom’s not all that bad. Sure, her music’s for coffee houses and High Street chain stores, but she’s a charming performer with a really quite gorgeous voice. Her big number one ‘I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker’ might be a big, patronising number two of a song, yet others like ‘Time’ and ‘Lonely Girl’, and a very good cover of Gnarls Barkley’s ‘Crazy’, demonstrate that she’s rather more suited to quirky love songs than social commentary.