"Leave Me Be"
Toploader
from the album "Magic Hotel" (Sony/UK, 2002)
Toploader were a British rock band who only put out two albums before splitting up in 2003. Their first album, "Onka's Big Moka", produced a few hit singles, but I actually like their follow-up (and less-popuar) album more, because it seemed to me to be more adventurous. The songs overall seem a bit more optimistic and upbeat, and the grand finale, "The Midas Touch", is a grandiose string-laden epic that, as one reviewer aptly described it, sounds like the theme song from a lost James Bond movie. (The "encore", as it were, is a cool cover of the classic '60s tune "Some Kind of Wonderful".)
Lead singer Joe Washbourne has a voice that might take some getting used to, but I've come to like his unique timbre and intonation. Add to that the catchiness of this tune, plus such embellishments as the classic Hammond organ sound and the handclaps in the chorus, and this song is just about impossible to resist! Too bad Toploader is no more ... I could have easily had one more album of their music.
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