Late last year we wrote a little about ‘Human, Dying’, the single from Leeds-based songwriter Niall Summerton, describing how his music “uses a welcoming richness as way into the weightier, darker themes of the human experience.” The song was a preview of Summerton’s forthcoming debut LP on Tiny Library Records which comes out in the spring.
Now Summerton is back with another single from the record, another easygoing pop song that’s packed with lo-fi charm. Recorded on a beat-up homemade guitar he bought from a man in Barnsley during lockdown (an MDF Gibson Les Paul copy built from a kit ordered on eBay that Summerton has christened “The Fibson”), ‘Wish You Could Speak’ is an ode to a canine companion. “‘Wish You Could Speak’ is a ditty-for-the-dog,” Niall Summerton describes. “I think we’d be great friends if we could chat. Sometimes it’s a lot easier to spend time with dogs, they’re less hassle.” As lighthearted as that sounds, as usual with Summerton, the track gently probes at deeper emotions, finding something wistful in life’s small, odd moments.
I only want to be his friend
so I don’t have to pretend
that he knows what’s on my mind
