Euros Childs "Hi Mewn Socasau"

Several listens into this year's extraordinary compilation Welsh Rare Beat, and it's clear that the small island's eclectic pop music draws influences from all throughout Western pop, from pastoral folk to girl-group pop, electronic, and a metric butt-load of other places. Instantly upon listening to Euros Childs' "Hi Mewn Socasau" (mp3) (Welsh for "Her in Leggings"), I got the same slightly overwhelmed (in a good way) feeling--I was left a bit speechless (which, if you know me, is rare) trying to pinpoint its obvious stylistic predecessors. This song begins as a slightly less inflammatory Jerry Lee Lewis-style pounder (kind of like M. Ward's "Big Boat"), then elevates skyward during the chorus toward the same ethereal realm the Super Furries frequently occupy. It's only the highlight of Chops (the album-closing epic "First Time I Saw You" is a wonder), Child's first solo outing after a decade of manning the other noted Welsh psych-poppers Gorky's Zygotic Mynci. In his artist bio, he translates its content:

"It's set in a Welsh village in 1869", Euros explains. "The character in the song basically has to get a shoe for his horse before the break of dawn, so he's off to the local blacksmith, who is a woman. Everyone has warned him against her because she's got a bit of a reputation, but the chorus is him basically the two of them getting it on. There's lots of Carry-On style innuenedo - I think Gorwel was a bit shocked when I started singing it."

Of course, that's what I was going to say. But I was going to try and work "metric butt-load" in there again somewhere.

Chops drops in February on Wichita. Check here for more info.