18 year old Sunderland based Tom A Smith’s thunderous 2022 continues. The end of September saw the release of Tom’s deliciously confident and moody new track Like You Do, a clever collaboration with Miles Kane.

This follow the 2022 release of two showcase EP’s which totally show Tom’s incredible talent and potential, and a whirlwind non stop series of gigs supporting all kinds of headline artists. Most recently Tom has been rubbing shoulders with The Lathums, Courteeners, Gang of Youths, and Elton John among many.

As Tom explains, the bones of Like You Do had been kicking around for a while, and then Miles suggested its uptempo soaring chorus. The rest is history, and this is a deliciously strong track destined to hang around Tom’s set list for quite the while to come. However, given Tom has around 300 unreleased songs in various forms of progress, I’m betting it will only be a matter of short time before another banger or three will emerge.

If like Tom A Smith, you have the face of an angel and the beautifully strong voice of a Norse God, then a bit of moody, swingy, burlesque is totally a valid way to go for a song. Here Like You Do builds on the dark and dramatic of the likes of The Last Shadow Puppets, Leonard Cohen You Want It Darker era, and of course the master of Gothic swing Nick Cave.

The lyrics match the confident swagger – here the song’s protagonist is sorry for treating a love badly, but celebrates that they still love them unconditionally. “Gotta be mean to keep em keen” as the old saying goes.

The song builds on the sheer diversity in Tom’s music and the tracks that have been released to date. For some idea of the width of Tom’s influences just look at the huge variety of songs that Tom covers from the Arctics to Destiny’s Child (look at Tom’s socials for the best version of Leonard Cohen’s Famous Blue Raincoat).

While Like You Do could be from a classic Tarantino movie, I’m rather hoping the only axes I might see at Tom A Smith’s forthcoming headline tour across the North of England will be of the musical variety.

I almost very almost lost my support for Mick Lynch yesterday as I couldn’t find a train to see Tom and his most skillful band in Manny at Neighbourhood Festival, but there are too many other opportunities for Mick and his team to scupper them all over the next few months. Go and see Tom’s socials for details.

Tiggerligger

* Images taken from Tom A Smith’s Social Media