You'd think that being Poet Laureate would keep Simon Armitage busy enough, but evidently not - I'm finding it hard keeping up with his musical career with Patrick James Pearson and Richard Walters as the band LYR. When I heard they had a new album out in April, I headed over to their bandcamp page... only to discover I'd completely missed an earlier offering, An Unnatural History, which must have followed hot on the heels of the last record I bought from them, 2023's Ultraviolet Age.
I'm slowly embracing the charms of An Unnatural History, but I've been particularly taken by a three-part song structure (or whatever you want to call it) that's dotted throughout the collection. It's called Theodolite... and it involves Armitage wandering round a run-down town centre (which I'm convinced, because he's a local lad, and because I recognise some of the places he mentions) must be Huddersfield. Although there's an Eldon Street in Sheffield, and one in Barnsley too, so it could be anywhere round here.
Of course, there's more to it than that, because he's a poet, and so what sounds like is actually a commentary on modern urban life... but beyond that, I'll leave you to make up your own minds.
And yes, I had to google what a "Theodolite" was. And it made perfect sense when I did.
More of the songs I decided my son Sam needed to know to help him succeed in life...
Track 13: It's Immaterial - Driving Away From Home
I like a good talky song. Sam's Mum, on the other hand, isn't a fan. She will regularly complain that Neil Tennant talks in too many Pet Shop Boys songs, rather than actually singing, and whenever this particular track pops up on the car stereo, her response has generally been, "It's just some bloke wittering on about driving up the motorway". To which I would reply, if I ever dared disagree with her, "Yes, it is - and that's why it's a work of genius!"
I'll tell you what Why don't we cross the city limit And head up north Through Manchester I mean all you've got to do is put your foot hard down to the floor And we can call on people I know in Newcastle And maybe even Glasgow There's a lot of nice places to see up there Without a care in the world
I love this song, even if I don't really gel with the sentiment. I mean, it's about the freedom of the open road, and that may have been all very well in 1986 (three years before I passed my test) but I don't find anything pleasurable in being behind the wheel these days. Funnily enough, Sam asked me the other day, "do you enjoy driving?" and my response was NO - I like it as an idea, but unfortunately the roads are full of idiots who want to kill you.
All you gotta do is put your foot hard down to the floor And we'll go through the lights Across the junction Through the council estates Past the detached houses and the semi-detached Past the high rise And out onto the country lanes Maybe even hit a motorway There's nothing to stop us I mean after all We haven't got a care in the world...
...other than staying alive and not letting that arsehole in the Audi run you off the road because it'll mean he might reach his destination ten seconds sooner.*
(*Lyrics cut from the original recording.)
I fell down a bit of a rabbit-hole reading up on It's Immaterial. I kind of knew about the two main guys, Jarvis Whitehead and John Campbell, and their slow rise to success - starting in 1980 with the superb debut single Young Man (Seeks Interesting Job). What I didn't know was that Henry Priestman was also a member at one point, before he went on to join The Christians, and then release a couple of excellent solo records that I think I recall Martin recommending sometime in the dim and distant past. I also didn't know that ItsI finally finished their third album, 30 years after they started it, in 2020. Clearly, as with Timbuk 3, further investigation is required. And just like on the Timbuk 3 song that kicked off this compilation, It's Immaterial's biggest hit benefits greatly from the addition of a harmonica. See, Louise - it's not just a bloke talking!
Driving Away From Home currently has 99,000 views on the tube of you. Let's see if we can get it closer to 100K.
Track 14: REM - Get Up
I figured REM would be one of the bands most regularly featured on these compilations, and a quick tally reveals they are in joint fifth position with two other acts that won't surprise long-time readers of this blog but would horrify the cognoscenti.
I'm on safer ground with REM, though you do have to be careful with the hardcore REMmies who sneer disdainfully at anyone who discovered the band after their IRS days. Green, which this track comes from, was their mainstream WEA debut, and as such will be seen by a small group of extremists as the beginning of the end. Or maybe just the end, full stop. I myself would offer Green up as a contender for Best REM Album, probably as a vote-splitter with its follow-up, Out Of Time. Automatic For The People is too obvious - see, I can be a snob too!
Get Up is the sixth REM song to feature on these compilations - for the record, the first was Stand (from the same album) back on the very first Sam CD I created. Some of the bigger hits followed, but I'm intrigued by why I included this one before either Orange Crush or Pop Song 89. I guess it's got a very simple repeated chorus which I figured would hook in a youngster's head. Apparently, Michael Stipe directed the lyrics at Mike Mills who would often sleep late during the recording sessions.
Track 15: Scissor Sisters - I Don't Feel Like Dancin'
When the Scissor Scissors broke onto the scene in 2003, I was very interested. Laura sounded like a classic 70s pop song, yet it had that contemporary edge which separated it from the retro-acts. The band followed this with their bizarre cover of Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb which... whisper this... I preferred to the original. Then came Take Your Mama and Mary, proper pop songs in an era of Auto-Tune and Landfill Indie. I had high hopes for this band...
Ta Dah! That was their name of their second album, and it started very well for them - with this song, a worldwide Number One. (Well, worldwide if you exclude their home country of the USA, who never really took to them - too much irony in their act? Or could it be homophobia? The band did well in the US dance charts, but never crossed over to the mainstream.)
After that... I'm not sure what happened. Other hits followed, but maybe they were trying too hard to court the pop stations and they lost that early edge. Whatever, my attention wandered.
I was about to close by saying this was the best Bee Gees song the Bee Gees didn't write in the 21st Century. Turns out Jake Shears and Babydaddy did have a co-writer on this tune though... one Reginald Kenneth Dwight, formerly of this manor. Well, you learn something new every day.
Track 16: Shed Seven - Disco Down
Ah, speaking of "Landfill Indie". No, I won't have that said about Shed Seven - besides, they were around in the Britpop days, the LF label can only really be applied to humourless post-Millennial indie dirges. Actually, Shed Seven started way back in 1990, and this was their final Top 20 hit, from the year before the Y2K bug devastated the world. And look, it's fun! It's got a disco beat and the kind of lyrics the Scissor Sisters would be lauded for five years later.
Shed Seven are pretty high on my list of Britpop bands that should have been bigger than Oasis. Bear in mind that list also includes Strangelove, Geneva, Marion and even Menswear. It's hard to think of a Britpop act that doesn't deserve that accolade... in my humble opinion.
OK, clearly I was here, because I ran a Namesakes which aggravated George even more than usual because the best band weren't an exact, precise, 100% namesake. Bloody Maths teachers and their pedantry.
But as well as being here, I was also guesting over at the esteemed No Badger Required blog, talking about a band I like that nobody else really likes.
I definitely won the prize for most out-of-place blogpost this month.
Still, if you want to read why I love the guys at the top of the page as much as I do... go read the post.
