XIII Oceans

I haven’t been in the car that much today and it’s usually the place where I’ll listen to music the most, alongside when I’m drifing off to sleep at night. I thought I’d use this blog to occasionally discuss a song of the day. What a belter I caught tonight on the way home.

Is It Like Today? by Karl Wallinger’s World Party was on Radio 2 as I was trundling home tonight and I figured it to be a song that had been lost amongst the supreme magic of corporate indie Britain. Fortunately not. A great three minute pop presentation of Bertrand Russell’s ‘A History Of Western Philosophy’ delving into dense subject matter with the simplest melodic musicianship and economical lyrics. Okay it’s nothing new for the enlightened, however to hear any song these days dealing with anything like this is beyond rare and listening again I was reminded of just how brilliant a song it was.

World Party themselves kind of fell below the radar and despite winning Q’s first ever album of the year for the excellent ‘Goodbye Jumbo’ (I recommend this album for any fan of pop music) they never really got the recognition that I felt they deserve. A lot better than The Waterboys I don’t recall any of the music press of the time being that interested in World Party, usually because of claims of them being derivative, which we all now know is homage and inspiration. Still I’m a believer that the good will out and I’d put good money in years to come that the album will be held up as the minor classic it is.

Wallinger continues to work with World Party and after his record company fucked him over by letting Robbie ‘Twat’ Williams garner a hit single on the back of one of his works (‘She’s The One’) I understand that he suffered an aneurysm, probably brought on by hearing the record.

Catch the video by clicking here