Here's Tom rounding off the month that he confirmed his intentions to release his music more directly, without first having fed it through the process that transforms it into Editors songs. This is an acoustic version of What is This thing Called Love, a track that Tom wrote to prove to himself that he was capable of constructing a ballad for musical talent shows like X-Factor. There's a connection between Tom operating as a solo songwriter now and when we initially heard this, back in 2012 as part of PIAS Nites.
Back then, he very much still within the wreckage of the original lineup of his band. Chris' exit hadn't been announced yet, that would come a couple of months later, but you have to guess that at that stage he would have been in prolonged contemplation about the two choices that presented themselves. There would either be nothing, or there would be a pursuit of a markedly different future. We know from interviews around the time of the promotional cycle around The Weight of Your Love album that he had considered retiring Editors as a band entirely. Could PIAS Nites 2012 have been the first, cautious steps of assessing just what it would like to bear the responsibilities of being a performer solely on his own merits?
Which brings us to 2025, where Tom has actually declared that as his intention, even though the safety net of Editors has been comfortingly asserted as remaining in place. Within the boundaries of that, he's posted this version of WITTCL and it's very different to the original. The studio take was a real tester for his falsetto, but not this time around. The music also possessed a measure of grandiosity, with the Bond movie strings sweeping all across it. Here's what he said in a press release recently:-
“Artistically, I realised I wanted to do something which was a purer representation of the songs I write, in the style I always have, on an acoustic guitar or a piano, presented simply."
Which is exactly what this is. Strangely, it's almost his normal songwriting process but in reverse. He's taken an Editors song that began acoustic, was transformed by the band into much bigger song and then reduced it back for this social media post.
If you'd like to listen to his set from PIAS Nites 2012, here's the link you'll need.
Enjoy the music ;)
WITTCL (Acoustic Video) - stream it here
WITTCL (MP3) - download here
brought to you with lots and lots of lemming-love ;) x
