KID HARPOON - ONCE
Whilst watching MTV2's coverage of the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas in 2007, I came across a live performance of somebody busking in the street. It was the strangest 3 and a half minutes I had witnessed in a long time, mainly because half way through the song, a stranger walked up, grabbed a fist full of dollars from the guitar case lying at the buskers feet, and casually walked off. The cameramen did nothing as the busker was yelling "He just robbed me, someone help!" at suitable gaps in the song, whilst not affecting the performance or how good the song was. The singer turned out to be Kid Harpoon and the song was 'Late For The Devil'. After this, I didn't hear much from him, a couple of EP's were released in 2007, but he seemingly disappeared, leaving me with great intrigue and only one simple recording of 'Late For The Devil'. After a year or two of hearing nothing by him or even about him, I wouldn't say I gave up on him, he just drifted far from my thoughts.
It turned out that he had been recording his debut album in 2008, and after scrapping this full albums worth of material, most of 2009 aswell. He wasn't happy with his first efforts and so travelled to LA to record with producer Trevor Horn, and so 'Once', by Kid Harpoon, aka Tom Hull's own admission, was a long time coming. Aided by musicians who have previously worked with everyone from Bob Dylan to Metallica, he has created an album of timeless quality.
I don't want to bore you with story of my first listen, but I can't help it. Sorry. After almost 9 hours of travelling from Manchester to Hamburg, I boarded a bus for the last leg of my journey to visit my girlfriend. It had been too long since I had seen her, it always is. I was tired, and I hadn't realised that another hour was going to be added to my journey when I boarded the bus. But the morning of that trip, Kid Harpoon's debut album had appeared online and I downloaded it straight onto my iPod. I must have forgot I had it because it wasn't until I sat down on the bus and shuffled through my artists that I came across it. After pressing play, I didn't really notice time pass, who had sat next to me, what I saw when looking out of the window. If it hadn't finished after 40 or so minutes, I'm pretty sure I would have missed my stop. I must admit, I laughed when I read the BBC's review of the album, mainly due to the line "happy couples may enjoy the themes of 'Once', cynical singles may find the constant evocation of love (lost or otherwise) and relationships nauseating." I can see why 'Once' strikes such a high chord with me in this way, but I fail to see how anybody could listen to it and not be moved in some way.
I don't feel my words can do this album enough justice, all I'll say is that I truly love 'Once' and I am certain it will stay with me for the rest of my life. Two quotes I read summed up Kid Harpoon and his album's brilliance in such amazing simple words that I'll give you these instead of one of my long, gushing rants.
"Novels without pages, daydreaming diary entries stripped of all self-conciouseness." - NME
"Beautifully lyrical songs that defy being pigeonholed... in a league of his own." - The Independent
P.S. I have never seen the busking performance since and it has never showed up on Youtube. If anyone can locate it, please let me know, I'd love to watch it again. I am 97% sure I didn't imagine it.
