The Delgados made probably my favourite song of the 90s with Under Canvas Under Wraps and made a series of critically lauded and Peel adored records for much of the next decade, though real popular acclaim eluded them. To some extent this song, the lead single, from their final album, can be seen as a last throw of the dice, a simple bouncy song with a catchy chorus that moves away from the complicated arrangements of previous records.
However, the happy tune belies a darker lyric with a familiar musical theme of unhappy life in a small town - “Got a slap in the face from the mafia who ran the place” - in this case Castle Douglas in southern Scotland, and wanting to escape. But the song itself is a superior example of guitar based pop music, with Emma Pollock’s gorgeous voice to the fore as the instrumentation drops away towards the end before the whole thing comes to a grinding halt as if the power had been turned off.
Matt Gaynor
[Spotify]
[YouTube]
[Album: Universal Audio]
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