“Blighty wants his country back
Fifty-inch screen in his cul-de-sac
Wombic charm of the Union Jack
As he cries at the price of a bacon bap
Islam didn’t eat your hamster
Change isn’t a crime” (Great)
In just a few lines the media, nationalism, and acquisitive capitalism are pierced with a sonic lance. “Islam didn’t eat your hamster...” for those of us who remember the famous Sun headline we recognise the reference to the extraordinary ability of sections of the media to focus its attention on folk devils, while seeming to ignore the crimes and misdemeanors of its paymasters.
Ultimately, I suppose, 'Great' is a song about Brexit. But it speaks more broadly, about the way society is changing, and about the petty nationalism that seems to have come to characterise us. Its a positive song in some ways, but it's a song too about a curiously mediated and curated nostalgia for blue passports and an imagined past, like those summers when the sun always shone, and those winters when it always snowed. 'Great' reminds us we must hold our collective imagination to account, lest we fall lazily into the sort of simplistic naivete that sets 'us' up against 'them'.
|
|
|
IDLES are a Bristol based alternative rock/post hardcore band whose lyrics frequently critique aspects of contemporary society. For my money, they are one of the most important groups in circulation in 2019.
|
|
|
|
|
