Song of the Week #19

What a peculiar spectacle radio is these days. On one side you’ll have stations dedicated to playing the best of a certain era on repeat until the end of time, and of course on the other side you have modern music being put out for the masses to enjoy. Rightfully so. But sometimes a song that in its own essence belongs firmly in the doldrums of inner rock circles and 200-person music venues manages to make its way onto the pop charts. A song that shouldn’t be on the radio suddenly gets played twice a day, and embodies the antithesis of everything somebody born in the 40s or 50s wouldn’t want to listen to whilst munching on their corn flakes. Isn’t it fantastic?

I’m not referring to tracks that get a second lease of life from a well-constructed TV advert a la DFS selling sofas to Rockstar by Nickelback, or Coca-Cola rejuvenating Bodyrockers’ I Like the Way You Move, I’m referring to tracks that for no standout reason end up being played over and over again on daytime radio. Think Royal Blood circa 2014, what did Little Monster have that so many other rock band releases didn’t?

This Song of the Week was just that back in the mid-2010s (I would have said 2014, Wikipedia says otherwise). At university, I firmly remember my alarm clock going off and upon switching to radio one, Nick Grimshaw starting my morning off with a bang, and some punk band called Slaves slamming hard riffs down the airwaves.

I took it as a one off, an experiment by Grimmy if nothing else on his listeners. But then a couple of days later, I heard it again. How bizarre. It didn’t stop for months, and I couldn’t figure out if it was Nick Grimshaw’s pet project, or if the British public had rediscovered their love for The Clash. I never did solve the puzzle, but I’ve taken it as a positive since that the future of music could have actually been heading in the right direction, and the album that the song comes from is pretty banging. Here’s Sockets by Slaves. Enjoy!