So yeah, given all the hype generated by this Radio 1 campaign to get Malcolm Middleton's curmudgeonly 'We're All Gonna Die' to Christmas No.1, it's somewhat inevitable the single will limp in at #7 or something come Sunday's chart rundown.
This may not be such a bad thing: the campaign's being backed by a roll call of mediocrity which includes Zane Lowe, Colin Murray, Edith Bowman and Dick & Dom. Can you even begin to imagine how smug that lot would be if they succeeded? We'd be hearing about it until next Christmas at the very least.
All the same, it does make me nostalgic for a time before Simon Cowell and his weaselly cohorts conspired to ruin the annual race for Christmas No.1 forever.
My favourite Christmas No.1 doesn't actually mention Christmas at all. Instead, it's a fantastically irreverential electro-pop cover of a hackneyed Elvis standard by my favourite singles band of all time. Here it is in its extended six-and-a-half minute glory.
Other great Christmas songs which don't mention Christmas:
A Spaceman Came Travelling - Chris De Burgh
(It's an allegory. The spaceman's actually Jesus. Clever, eh?)
Stay Another Day - East 17
(About suicide, allegedly. It does have sleigh-bells on though.)
Only You - Yazoo
(Immortalised in the denouement of The Office Christmas Special.)
The Power of Love - Frankie Goes to Hollywood
(Synonymous with sexual failure at school Christmas discos.)
Caravan of Love - The Housemartins
(Heaton, Cook et al go Barbershop quartet. Awesome.)
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Manic Street Preachers @ Brixton Academy
[Originally published on Orange.co.uk]It’s been a difficult decade for the long-suffering Manics devotee: forced to witness the band’s steady decline from fiery glam insurrectionists to bland everyman rock has-beens.
It seems even the hitherto blindly loyal glitter‘n’tiara brigade have abandoned the cause, judging by the disappointing lack of sparkle in tonight’s audience.
Thankfully, this pre-Christmas greatest hits set finds James, Nicky and Sean in defiant mood – re-energised after their solo outings and critically rehabilitated after a (partial) return to form with eighth album Send Away The Tigers.
Any set which begins with ‘Motorcycle Emptiness’ is setting the bar high, while 'Little Baby Nothing''s high-octane refrain of ‘cultural alienation, boredom and despair’ is delivered with irrepressible lustre. But newies such as the guileless ‘Autumnsong’ are not disgraced in such illustrious company, while a blistering ‘Your Love Alone Is Not Enough’ sounds every bit like their best single of the noughties.
The Richey-era material already seems like it's being beamed in from another lifetime, but songs such as ‘La Tristesse Durera’ and ‘Roses In The Hospital’ have lost none of their incendiary potency. We can even forgive them the odd throwaway number such as ‘Ocean Spray’ because, well, it's Christmas.
From the moment a beefed-up cover of The Cult’s ‘She Sells Sanctuary’ segues into ‘Motown Junk’, the Manics can do no wrong. Closing with their stately proletarian elegy ‘A Design For Life’, this is a band trading on past glories, but doing so with undeniable class.
It seems even the hitherto blindly loyal glitter‘n’tiara brigade have abandoned the cause, judging by the disappointing lack of sparkle in tonight’s audience.
Thankfully, this pre-Christmas greatest hits set finds James, Nicky and Sean in defiant mood – re-energised after their solo outings and critically rehabilitated after a (partial) return to form with eighth album Send Away The Tigers.
Any set which begins with ‘Motorcycle Emptiness’ is setting the bar high, while 'Little Baby Nothing''s high-octane refrain of ‘cultural alienation, boredom and despair’ is delivered with irrepressible lustre. But newies such as the guileless ‘Autumnsong’ are not disgraced in such illustrious company, while a blistering ‘Your Love Alone Is Not Enough’ sounds every bit like their best single of the noughties.
The Richey-era material already seems like it's being beamed in from another lifetime, but songs such as ‘La Tristesse Durera’ and ‘Roses In The Hospital’ have lost none of their incendiary potency. We can even forgive them the odd throwaway number such as ‘Ocean Spray’ because, well, it's Christmas.
From the moment a beefed-up cover of The Cult’s ‘She Sells Sanctuary’ segues into ‘Motown Junk’, the Manics can do no wrong. Closing with their stately proletarian elegy ‘A Design For Life’, this is a band trading on past glories, but doing so with undeniable class.
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