Single review: Conal Kelly – Really Don’t Like You

• 6th Jul 2021

If this song by Bristol-based multi-instrumentalist Conal Kelly doesnlt make you laugh then you’re quite possibly suffering a serious sense of humour bypass.

In purely musical terms, Conal’s new release ‘Really Don’t Like You’, is smooth. Pop with an indie slant but with a polished, shiny production that could easily see it rubbing shoulders with the Top 40, Radio 1 playlist candidates of the day.

But once the lyrics start to work their magic, a very different side to Kelly emerges. The track is, in his own words, “a song about disliking someone for no apparent reason.

“I feel it’s quite a relatable subject, where something about a person’s behaviour just grates on you…in my case, clearly enough to write a three-and-a-half-minute pop song about it.”

With its almost AOR chorus laden with such dark – but baldly presented – sentiments, it becomes reminiscent of one of Baxter Dury’s softer moments, that is a fist in a smooth velvet glove.

Written, produced and recorded over a mere 48 hour period, with just a couple of days spent mixing, ‘Really Don’t Like You’, and all by himself in his home studio, it all bodes well for an artist we love to admire, albeit from a safe distance!

Hear more pf CK here: