The back story is as wonderful as that of any modern song, inspired by some found cassette tapes which turned out to be long forgotten audio letters between a New York based couple and their UK parents. It was the honesty of the idea of music as intimate conversation, of open communication between loved ones that changed the way Paul Littlewood approached song writing and explains the raw emotion and heart on sleeve approach to the song.
Musically Today is built on hazy indie-folk which toys with words like fey and twee but deftly avoids such undermining connotations by virtue of being anchored to more robust pop structures, and ends up closer to such iconic bands as Sparklehorse, Grandaddy and even Elliot Smith. It comes accompanied by Television, a more vibrant song which drives heavier on the guitar lines and pulsing bass flow but for all its energy is kept in the ball park by Paul’s understated vocal and the chiming charm that balances out the more exuberant sonic displays.
This is pop painted in watercolour rather than the heavy handed, over applied oils of the big industry way of working. There is something wonderfully heartfelt about the lyrics, a real English, tea drinking, breezy, over the garden fence chat sort of vibe, rather than the usual self-aggrandising, cooler than thou rubbish that has become the norm. Maybe it takes a lad from Yorkshire to capture all of that in two and a half minutes!