Last week I got my copy of Tim Minchin’s double album “Live at the O2”. It is totally awesome. I will rave about this for the remainder of this entry. Of course, I hope that you’ve already heard of Tim and that you just keep nodding while you read this. If for some sad reason you haven’t heard of Tim Minchin yet, you’re in for a treat.
Tim is an amazingly talented person. He’s a singer, a piano player, a comedian, a thinker, and an all around fun guy. He comes all the way from Australia. Last month he played a concert in the O2 Arena in London, England. There he made statistic jokes in front of 10,000 people. And he sang about how it’s overly simplistic to divide everything into two groups. This may sound boring when I write it. But trust me, it’s hilarious. No, wait, don’t trust me – check it out yourself! A recording of the concert is available from Tim’s homepage. The song about dichotomies is on it. It’s called “The Fence”. No, that’s not really funny. But the song itself is funny. And it’s also terribly catchy – and beautiful. Even if the music is not your cup of tea, you might still want to hear Tim’s talk between songs. The way he rants about “poo and crocodiles” being “natural organic substances” is priceless. (Actually, it’s 10 pounds for the download version, a few more for the CDs.)
Another highlight is “Thank You God”. It’s basically a song about evidence. Again, it starts out with a wonderful introduction during which Tim remarks that “Love without evidence is stalking.” He then launches into a wild bonanza of pop, big band and the debate on prayer (incidently solving the latter). To illustrate the extent of awesomeness achieved here, let it suffice to say that I’m totally in love with the brass section on this track. Seriously, it’s fantastic! Ba, badada, ba. Yes, it’s the part where the lyrics go something like “mistaken attributional causation born of a coincidental temporal correlation.”
The set contains several other new songs (“Cont”!) along with a collection of old songs like “If I Didn’t Have You” (“You’re obviously special but you fall within bell curve.”), “Not Perfect” and the wonderful Christmas song “White Wine in the Sun”. I was skeptical about Tim being joined by an orchestra. But the result speaks for itself, I think. (Hint: It’s great!)
Until now I’ve focused on “Live at the O2”, mainly because it’s new and offers a perfect showcase of Tim Minchin’s wit and talent. That doesn’t mean that his older material isn’t worth further attention. But I already raved long enough to make my point – which is: Tim Minchin is awesome!
PS: Tim Minchin is probably not for you if you’re easily offended by atheism, cursing, and sarcasm. There is, of course, much more to the songs than that. And when Tim manages to put what feels like 300 fucks into his 3-minute long “Pope Song”, the underlying anger is far from baseless.