I Can Do Nice

The title track from Saso’s lavishly praised recent album arrives pale and red-eyed, as though it’s been up all night crying. The sound, essentially, of two men moping in their bedroom, ‘I Can Do Nice’ plonks both feet in a well of acoustic miserabilism and splashes about for everything it’s worth. What rescues ‘I Can Do Nice’ from the ranks of singer-songwriter orthodoxy is its beguiling melody, delivered with the fretful strokes of an acoustic guitar. The song has the delicateness of spun sulk, the weird beauty of candlelight in pitch darkness. The Dublin duo’s achingly understated arrangements occasionally err on the creepy side of quiet; nevertheless this is an affecting articulation of everyday ennui.