SF0206 The Bicentenary Poll Ep5 #40-26

SF0206 The Bicentenary Poll Ep5 #40-26

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The last time I saw Mogwai it was, in all honesty, a little disappointing. But they’ve been going for 30 years now and you can’t stay on top of your game forever. ‘Friend of the Night‘ is from, in my opinion, their best album, Mr Beast. Remaining in the 21st century, ‘Lost Cause‘ comes from, coincidentally, my preferred Beck album: the breakup one, Sea Change.

Back in time we go for the next few tracks. Indeed, some people have expressed a degree of surprise at how venerable many of our tracks are, but that is the consequence of enabling people to choose their all-time favourites, often established many decades ago. So, in short order, we get ‘Equator‘ from Sparks‘ classic 1974 album Kimono House, two iconic tracks from 1967, ‘Waterloo Sunset‘ and Nico‘s ‘These Days‘ and, before that, two very different 70s landmarks. Then Robert Wyatt‘s haunting cover of Elvis Costello‘s finest lyrics, ‘Shipbuilding‘. 

It’s sometimes said that the most influential song from 1977 was not ‘Anarchy in the UK’ but ‘I Feel Love‘ and listening to Giorgio Moroder’s production, endlessly influential through the past half century, it’s hard to disagree. More surprising, to me at least, was the appearance of Eddie and the Hot Rods with ‘Do anything you want to do‘, originally chosen by Rajan Datar in the interview I conducted with him. Not a cool band, not a cool name, but a powerful track which brings a nostalgic glow to some members of our community.

‘I see a darkness‘ stands out as an unusual ’90s track before we return to the ’70s for another couple of classic post-punkers in ‘Map Ref‘ and ‘Shot by both sides‘.

But I was delighted to finish this episode with a trio of female-fronted songs from this decade. ‘Donnie Darko”s a track I never tire of, and indeed it only seems to escalate in reputation as the years go by. ‘R&B‘ was a Festive Forthy #1 and ‘Superstar‘ a FF #2, so some extremely high quality recent material to bring this episode to a fitting conclusion.

Where to from here? Stay tuned.