Madam - Thou Tiny Child (The Coventry Song)

  by John Clarkson

published: 2 / 12 / 2012

Label: Shilling Boy Records
Format: CDS

intro

Thought-challenging and topical download only Christmas single from London-based band Madam, which has been adapted from a sixteenth century lament

The real message of Christmas - that we should all try being nicer to one another - has become distorted and lost amidst the grand scale commercial racket that it has become. Fortunately the ever reliable London-based singer and musician Sukie Smith has done something to readdress the balance with her band Madam's "seasonal offering" and latest download only single, 'Thou Tiny Child (The Coventry Song)’. 'Thou Tiny Child' is a sixteenth century lament, written about the Massacre of the Innocents in which King Herod ordered that all children under two in Bethlehem should be murdered, after it was prophesied that one of them, Jesus, would over throw him. Smith's mournfully beautiful vocals merge with echoing, spooky tinges of keyboards and regular Madam members Sarah Gill and Jeff Townsin's funereal, softly tapping cello and drums to startling effect. They have, with the current conflicts and child murders in Syria and Africa, recorded something that is as topical as it is timeless and deeply moving. With all the profits from the single going towards the restoration of St Leonard's, the eighteenth century Shoreditch church that it was recorded in, Madam have done that rarest of things, released a Christmas record that is both thought-challenging and has real meaning.

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