My Top Twenty-One of 2021: #14

14. Jim Bob - Who Do We Hate Today?

While Billy Bragg might think he's too old to play the angry young man card anymore, nobody seems to have told Jim Bob he should relinquish that role. His latest record is as angry - and witty - as anything he recorded with Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine, and he's still got plenty to complain about in the world around him... perhaps more than ever.

Like a vicious stand-up routine set to record, this is frequently hilarious, but also makes you think. A few choice examples include...

Shona Is Dating A Drunk, Woman Hating Neanderthal Man

Her friends and her family too

Say, "Shona, he's no good for you

He's a beast that belongs in the zoo"

Shona is dating a vile, irritatingly self-righteous dude

Her friends don't come round any more when he's there now

Because he's so rude

As a couple they're practically perfectly matched

Because opposites attract...

Men

Men: the plural of an adult male person

As distinguished from a woman or a boy

Men: the providers, Men: the dividers

Men who destroy

Men make the rules so other men can break them

Men with their uniforms and guns

Men outside schools, when children are taken

Men, passing their ways onto their sons

#prayfortony

Tony doesn't suffer cunts

Tony hates Black History Month

Tony did Movember once

You lucky, lucky ladies

 

One day there will be a statue in his hometown

Tall enough to climb up on and pull down

So you can stamp his face into the cold ground

All that, plus the best song I've heard about Lockdown yet... it almost makes me miss those halcyon days when we were only allowed out for an hour's exercise a day. Almost.

Just a week, maybe two without cars

It was the first time I'd really seen stars

The streets were completely deserted

I pretended I was Cillian Murphy