Every four years the European Championships of football come round. It started out as four teams in the ‘60s, then slowly escalated to 8 in the last century. This year there’s 20 teams. It’s either a cynical money-spinning jamboree or a chance to get to know the Georgian midfield better. Hang on, are Georgia even in Europe?
It's easy in fact to be cynical, not just at Christmas, but at any tournament organised by UEFA or FIFA. However I happened to wake in the middle of the night (European sport is no friend to a Melburnian’s sleep patterns) and, mainly because it was the only match live, watched the whole of Georgia vs Turkey. Brilliant end-to-end game and a cacophonous wall of support for both sides from the entire stadium. Does this all feed into a dark, political nationalism, I hear you ask? A bit, maybe. But it was incredible fun.
Some lovely songs in this episode. Start at the end with a song clearly written in the raw shock of the Brexit referendum result in 2017. Although the singer must know he can still eat croissants and read Rilke, it just feels like those two activities will never be the same again. A lovely downbeat, heartfelt reaction.
On his new and overtly political album Funeral for Justice, Tuareg guitarist Mdou Moktar meanwhile lets his solos become the sound of his fury when his Tamasheq lyrics aren’t enough. On the track featured here, Oh France, his subject is the former colonial power’s relationship with Niger, whose uranium comprises almost its entire export product, but whose government sees virtually none of the profit. Instead, France still controls most of the country’s supply, using the minerals to power a third of its domestic electricity, while almost 90 percent of Nigerian citizens are left without access to power. And though France finally relinquished all military bases in Niger following a 2023 military coup, many of its mines remain active to this day, leaking radon into the water supply of surrounding towns.
Football, politics, music. Don’t fret, it’s not all political nor about football at all, really. There’s still songs about the Norwegian summer, the Swedish winter and a Welsh song about a Spanish dance troupe.
Tracklist:
Amsterdam, Scott Walker
Ibiza rocks, Ace Bushy Striptease
Stockholm syndrome, Yo La Tengo
Spanish dance troupe, Gorkys Zygotic Mynci
Oh France, Mdou Mocktar
Iceland moss, Sudan Archives
Concrete over water, Jockstrap
Transit, Fennesz (feat David Sylvian)
Oslo in the summertime, Of Montreal
Paris is gone, Radio Free Alice
Geneva strangemod, Glyders
The cold Swedish winter, Jens Lekman
I am European, Gavin Osborn, The Comment Section