A scene likely to inspire optimism. Photo: Corbis
Any journalist would need a skin thick as rhinoceros hide to listen to this week's A list without at some point blushing with shame. I tried very hard to make sure music critics got a decent kicking, too, but in the end there wasn't quite enough room in the final 10. As Britney herself so eloquently put it, oops.
So Guns'n'Roses' hilarious provocation Get in the Ring and Half Man Half Biscuit's insouciant Bad Review kick off the B list, followed inevitably by the Beatles' A Day in the Life and Billy Bragg's It Says Here, both turfed out of the A list at the last minute. Following those are Sage Francis's absorbing Makeshift Patriot, Pere Ubu's My Friend Is a Stooge for the Media Priests, which by some miracle lived up to its title, Mikey Dread's Headline News, the Vapors' rather wonderful News at Ten, Tom Paxton's Daily News and Okkervil River's The President's Dead. Disappointingly, there were a few things this week that, despite all best efforts, I just couldn't find a copy of: the Altered Images song, the Diana Ross, Pete Townshend's Classified. Very frustrating. Thanks again to webcorewebcore for putting me on to the Honey Cones' Want Ads, and for the CD tip-off: one can never have enough girl-group music, I always say.
And so, to this week's theme, which is optimistic songs: hope, positive glimpses of the future, songs that joyously anticipate death, all of that. I forgot to remind everyone last week not to post more than one-third of the lyrics, but most of you are being quite brilliant about that, thank you. This way for the A-Z, RR archive and Overspill blog, and deadline is midday Monday.
