"You were writing your setlist on the side of a cup"

Poor old Don Lennon. He must curse being lumbered with a name that sounds similar to the name of one of popular culture's biggest icons (although possibly not as it's been implied in the past that this isn't Don's real name). I know I get irritated every time I search for him in an online shop. "Did you mean to search for that wildly famous pop star?", asks the annoyingly perky search help function. "No, I bloody well didn't, otherwise I would have typed his bloody name, wouldn't I?" is my usual response. If I'm in a good mood.

Anyway, Don Lennon is much better than his almost namesake. His witty lyrics delivered in deadpan style are never better than on his third album, Downtown (2002 Secretly Canadian), which tackles issues such as whether it's alright the pretend to like Dave Matthews in order to get your end away. He's been compared to Jens Lekman, but Don Lennon is much more low key, a bit like Stephin Merritt or the Go-Betweens. Have a listen to this lovely song from Downtown:

Don Lennon - The Night Kramer Met Ann mp3 (available for 7 days)

In 2006, Don recorded the Acid House Kings' Tonight Is Forever for the EP Everyone Sings Along With The Acid House Kings on which 5 artists covered AHK songs (released following the success of their karaoke DVD, Sing Along With The Acid House Kings. Also on that EP was Magnus Carlson's beautiful version of Will You Love Me In The Morning, but I'm sure we'll get around to that another entry.)
Here's Don's interpretation of Tonight Is Forever. "Oh, I like this part. I like that funky guitar..."

Don Lennon sings the Acid House Kings - Tonight Is Forever mp3 (available for 7 days)

Don Lennon has now released five albums full of finely-crafted, original songs and you can buy all of them from his official website.



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