It would have been so, so easy to make fun just before even listening to this. Picture the scene: You are a footballer just nudging your thirties. You played for the mighty St Johnstone and Aberdeen (before being loaned off to Dunfermline) but have had a career, like many footballers, that have seen an injury or seven. Therefore, as a side venture, a hobby, or a possible setup for a new post-SPL career, you decide it’s a good idea to pick up a guitar and microphone. Rutkiewicz has said he started writing music due to a long injury layoff and the birth of his daughter, which is nice to know but doesn’t stop the dread as the CD begins the spin inside the player.
However, as much fun as it would have been to write a scathing review of this track just because of the old footballer-come-musician setup that has never gone well whatsoever, I have to review this track on its own merit and, aside from some very dodgy lyrics and a backing band that sound like the Rutkiewicz cookware at the start, the song itself meanders wistfully through a dreamy folk twinge that actually left me wishing there was another verse when the song was over less than three minutes in.
Yes folks, it’s actually pretty good.
It sounds like it was recorded in a basement somewhere rather than a studio which actually makes the acoustic guitar and Rutkiewicz’s delicate, if a little safe, voice (which, it has to be said, comes complete with thick Scots accent for added flavour and authenticity) work together well. The poor recording actually adds another air of ambience which gives this track a new setting. Not only that but when the violin joins in during the second half, the song itself builds and begins to truly resemble a well-crafted piece heading for a crashing climax.
But, just before it arrives, it concedes a penalty and the game was over. I wanted another minute. Extra time, if you will. This was by no means a perfect performance, but it’s certainly better that most other artists from a similar background I’ve ever heard.
So it’s not been relegated. Europa League at best. Certainly not Champions League.
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