Welcome all to ๐๐ผ๐ป๐ป๐ผ๐น๐น๐โ๐ ๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฟ, a series of weekly reviews by Charles Connolly - an artist in his own right. Here, Charles delves into the greatest brand new singles brought to you by the best unsigned artists on our electrifying and eclectic set of ๐๐๐ฌ ๐ผ๐ง๐ฉ๐๐จ๐ฉ ๐๐ฅ๐ค๐ฉ๐ก๐๐๐๐ฉ playlists.
๐๐ฌ๐ค ๐๐ค๐ช๐ก๐จ - ๐๐ ๐พ๐ค๐ง๐ง๐๐๐ค
Charles unconsciously lies to himselfโฆ
Love is heaven. Love is bliss. Love is life. Love is everything. Love is hell. Love is cruel. Love is a curse. Love is the death of a heart gone cold. One never knows how anything is going to turn out, but one always hopes for the best. Sometimes though, it is not hope that we feel, but โfactual knowledgeโ. For the sake of simplicity, letโs keep this heterosexual. Somewhere in the world, there is a man. Somewhere else in the world there is a woman. Neither knows the other, but each has one thing in common: they are alone. They muddle through in the way that we do. The travelator of life. The zombie conveyor belt. For without love, there is little but this. For the sake of argument, letโs call these two souls Brian and Ethel. Brian likes gardening. It keeps him busy, and takes his mind off the loneliness of life. The flowers are his friends. The crops are his sustenance - in more ways than ones. But ultimately he is numb. He is empty. He is also lazy. He just doesnโt put himself about. In the words of Arctic Monkeys: โBrian, top marks for not tryinโโ. And so, the beat goes on. Ethel, on the other hand spends most of her time in the kitchen. A plump lady, who likes to bake cakes. But with no one to bake for, it feels like a foolโs errand. She simply gets a little more plump. When she can eat no more, she sits at the kitchen table, smoking (she has the idea this will make her lose weight), and staring out of the window at the neighbourโs garden (for her own leaves much to be desired). She sighs and puts the kettle on. Or the Kethel. While coffee enriches and invigorates the soul, tea was invented to pass the time. Fact. As the water is brought to the boil, the whistle tells her so and insistingly prompts her to remove the kethel from the hob. She does so. But as she does so, she catches a glimpse of a shiny bonce. A polished noggin. It belongs to the body of man busy pruning. How had she not noticed Brian before? Had she been too busy staring at his roses? Was she pondering on her doubts about the quantity of flour? Be it flour or flowers, the tea is now far down on her to-do list.
Brian looks up and sees her staring through the window. This prompts him to inadvertently shove a spade into his big toe. Now, all that Ethel can see is a varnished egg bobbing rapidly above and below the top of the fence, with what sounds like a cat mewing. Despite Brianโs evident searing pain, his mind is on something else. Young Ethel. She immediately lends a helping hand and carries him in to her kitchen. Yes, she carries him - Brian is a small man, and Ethel, well, she is big-boned, shall we say. They stare into each otherโs eyes in silence. There is an instant moment of love at first sight. I say โa momentโ, because she then clumsily steps on his toe. After the initial yelp from Brian, they both tumble into light hysterics. A new era is born. When two souls blend into one. In time, he tends her bush, and she has a bun in the oven.
All things bright and beautiful, but not for long. Things go awry, as they so often do when โendless loveโ is involved. Ethel's last words to Brian were "Just give me a call". He went back to his gardening, and Ethel just stares at the phone, while getting fatter. Love is rarely endless, unfortunately. That is, until you meet the right one. This, more or less, happens to all of us. We meet โthe oneโ, and it turns out they werenโt โthe oneโ after all. Sad, but true. You see, one way or another, we lie to ourselves. Subconsciously or otherwise. Love can be very much like a British summer: it swiftly comes and goes, sometimes barely making an appearance in the first place. Actually, a British summer is more like a fleeting one night stand - too much, too soon, and it's over before you know it. The other similarity between love and the infamously mythical British summer, is how Britonians have total blind hope and optimism. Is this blarney? Do they believe it themselves? In love, we tell ourselves what we want to believe, because we want so much for it to work. The final similarity between love and the British summer is how people forget or do not realise that it can often work out. Love can genuinely be all peaches and cream, and a British summer can indeed be lengthy periods of warm sunshine beaming down on Hyde Park. It's a beautiful day! Optimism is the only answer, really.
On this note, I bring your attention to Ed Corrado and his first single in more than a year: Two Souls. This is the follow-up to his fabulous single, Time, which I reviewed as soon as it was released. Ed is much loved in the New Artist Spotlight community. Both in terms of his music and simply his kind, honest, modest character. Corrado has made a surprise and welcome return to the NAS Top 20 in recent weeks - possibly in anticipation of Two Souls. Ya know, when people just canโt wait, and they need some Ed Corrado in their life. I was offered an early preview of the track, but I politely declined. Because I wasnโt interested. No no no, Iโm joking. It was the opposite. Those who know me, know that I like to make things special. Unlike most of the world these days, I enjoy the anticipation of things. The looking forward. The excitement. Lord knows, adding a song to a streaming library for free is not the same as rushing out to your local record shop and buying a copy of the latest single by one of your favourite artists. And so, I have to improvise. The very least I can do is wait until release day. So on Friday, I woke up, picked up my phone, went to Apple Music (my preferred platform for music immersion), and went to Ed Corradoโs releases. There it was! Two Souls. I added it to my library and pressed play. Thankfully, I was very much not disappointed (thatโs the only problem with getting oneโs hopes up - one can be disappointed). Ed powers through like a determined warhorse. Relentless energy from a drummer who loves his job! Jangly guitars to the fore, reminiscent of The Smiths and The Jam. The verses play a game of call and response with vocal and guitar. Edโs call is pure and genuine. One would swear he had managed to wangle Mark Knopfler from Dire Straits to play the response. In terms of chords, three songs spring to mind: โDonโt Fear The Reaperโ by Blue Oyster Cult, โAll Along the Watchtowerโ - the Jimi Hendrix version. and โI Owe It All to Youโ from Paul McCartneyโs heavily underrated album, Off the Ground. Happy Birthday Sir Paul!!
We turn back the clock at the chorus, moving from the rock of the 70s and 80s, even further back to the Swinging 60s! This instantly made me think of The Whoโs second album, A Quick One. Those harmonies just have that youth and insistence that makes us stop what weโre doing and listen. Punching back into verse territory, I start to feel early U2 influence - canโt go wrong with that! Where the verse and chorus feel like a cascading waterfall crashing on the rocks below, the songโs bridge really adds movement and course in the form of a fast-flowing stream. To sum up Two Souls, Ed Corrado has written a fabulous burst of music, with the saddest lyrics which I have roughly outlined above through Brian and Ethel.
So what you need to do is, rush down to your local record store and buy a copy! Or tap the link below. Whichever suits you.
Maybe Brian will start to miss Ethelโs cakes. But then again, they canโt have their cake and eat it.
Listen to ๐๐ฌ๐ค ๐๐ค๐ช๐ก๐จ on the ๐๐ผ๐ป๐ป๐ผ๐น๐น๐โ๐ ๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฟ Spotify playlist HERE!
Listen to ๐๐ฌ๐ค ๐๐ค๐ช๐ก๐จ on the ๐๐ผ๐ป๐ป๐ผ๐น๐น๐โ๐ ๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฟ Apple Music playlist HERE!
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Please share this post and let me know your thoughts in the comments below

Still love the literary genius of this review!!
i need to put kethel on and take all of this in. i know i could write a novel in response to your amazing review CC but i do need to be in the right frame of mind to say what i think about it all and i'm just not at the moment.What i have done is listened to Ed's song ,several times, and it sure is pushing a lot of buttons inside me, as is your review. Brilliant track is the best i can do for now Ed but i will come back to this sometime and share a few more useful,hopefully meaningful, comments as there is nothing more frustrating than when somebody leaves a comment like"Nice". i'd personallyโฆ
Brilliant. Poor Ethel and Brian, though. Hope they found some solace. Loved this, much like you, I enjoy the anticipation of things, hence why it's taken me a week to come over and read this. Right frame of mind for right deeds and actions. (Hippy) Love the song and was very excited to hear Ed had this up his sleeve. Beautiful track, and a beautiful review to boot. โค๐
I would like to see the musical of Brian and Ethel in the West End. Until then, I'll delight in the Jangly guitars that I can always rely on Ed Corrado for... this one reminds me a little of Nick Lowe and Squeeze, in addition to all the references you mentioned Charles. Brava to both!
One of your best reviews so far! Poor Brian and Ethel! But I loved the fact about tea, and I love the new song from Ed Corrado!