Hard Luck by Elvis ate my Goat

I find myself liking this song both for its infectious blend of breezy guitar licks and dry tension all growing on a jazzy funk root and for reminding me of the time I got friendly with this bloke and thought a lot about shagging him.
So already there's a win-win.
This foot tappin' tale of rough knocks and tough hard blows and all that mans' stuff is something everyone who's grown stubble and shaken more than three times can identify with. At least they could if it was possible to actually understand what he's talking about.
But mostly that doesn't matter because the images the words provide through a series of glimpsed scenes fill the gap. Relaying the action from the present tense is a good move, giving it timeless immediacy. There's a photographic quality, where the colours are faded but the outines are sharp, like a series of frames observing bad to worse in definite downturned steps. Which is all very arty for a funk jam.
From the tension of the opening to the resigned fade to grey ending, the sonic textures are very satisfying, with sounds pulling in, out and across without straying far from the format. There's a cohesion which allows for variety with some excellent dynamics, including the slap bass breaking through soft spaces. Bet that bass player is lean and tall like Paul Simonon.
Blokey has the perfect delicious ground-glass-and-honey voice for this kind of stuff, with a healthy union of singing styles. Like rappin' it out and floutin' the pout. Or something else more better than what I just made up then. The vocal has just enough punch and just enough melody for an easy balance.
Always good to hear an Elvis impersonator too, although I understand that it may have been an off-the-shelf sample.
The backing vocals have a seamless connection to the lead and in fact the whole vocal fusion is very professional. I even hear some female session singers back there.
The only weakness I can discern is that the bridge doesn't break away enough from the fore and aft, as though it's too nervous to stray far from its genre. The lyric is kind of weak here too, at least on line two. I mean, who wants to go mincing off to a gay club when there's dice to roll?
So yeah, pretty good. Not one of the greats but certainly not much to complain about, and one the plump flowery mums can dance to.
Hope you find your shoes soon mate.