Willie Dowling, the tirelessly inventive British songwriter famed for his acerbic lyrical barbs and epic pop-rock delivery, releases "I Killed My Imaginary Friend," the deliciously twisted new single from his latest solo album, "The Simpleton"
A year that saw them lace the length and breadth of the UK in a whirlwind of live shows, supporting rock heavyweights Cats In Space and The Quireboys, before embarking on a splurge of headline club tours, Dowling demonstrates once more that he's a dab hand at spectacle and substance. With its opening piano stabs and a carnival-like vibe, "I Killed My Imaginary Friend" opens up as estranged and dramatic. It is a psychodrama as vaudeville and pure Dowling. With a wink and a knife behind the back, the track sashays past a colorful arrangement of baroque pop flourishes, jagged cheer, and razor-wire wit.
It's Dowling at his absurdly delicious finest. The title itself, wry, dark, provocative, but blunt, portends a song that alternates between a lighthearted fantasy and an emotional reckoning. Is it a metaphor for the sloughing of old selves? A tongue-in-cheek confession? A sucker punch to the lies we tell ourselves? Possibly all of the above.
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