I’ve seen Two Pound (or 2£ or £2) play exactly once and that was supporting Persian Rug Sale at Northern Quarter in Huddersfield. At first they confused me – they just seemed to play all sorts of things, the things they wrote songs about were peculiar and one song took me longer to describe in my notes than the song itself – but then I pushed that ‘music reviewer’ attitude to the back of my head and just enjoyed it. Because whatever they play, they play it with a kind of casual brilliance.
The same could be said of ‘Shower Beer’, it comes at you from a place you just couldn’t have guessed at all, unless you’ve seen them play I guess. It’s a kind of mad jazzy blues song – there are horns, there is an absolutely amazing female backing vocal, there is the most incredible guitar.
It starts with just bass, then vocals come in. And then there is guitar and horns, plus that rather lovely backing vocal. There is a lovely light blues guitar solo. And then it goes absolutely fucking crazy people, it’s a riot of sound.
How you may be thinking ‘should I be taking this seriously, given the strange subject for a song, the rather madcap band bio, the rather strange choice of musical style?’ but I’m going to ask, to beg you, to put aside any preconceived ideas you may have developed while reading the review so far. Because this is brilliant. It’s brilliant musically. The lyrics are a blast of joy. You just have to remember that music is meant to be something we enjoy, not get all snobbish about.
Two Pound are a band treading their own wonderful path, a path that is going to take us through delights we can only start to imagine. This is a sign of the delights to come. It’s a joy, a bloody marvellous joy.
The info
The band say
hi we are two pound we are from Huddersfield our debut single shower beer is due to be released across all platforms on May 8th. consider the shower beer, you are warm, he is cold. your heart beats freely, he wallows within the confines of a cylindrical prison. welcome him into your home and he will repay you with kindness untold. this is but a dumpling in the pot of songbroth to come, a solitary sup from our chalice. we linger, confined to our grease pit, and stir and season. a bowl for every beautiful soul that does grace our path of pilgrimage. we bask in your glory, eyes milkwhite and clouded, consumed in your benevolence. turn your ear to our hymns and heed our message. you shine bright. love is real and you are great and wondrous.