Singles

Guillemots - Trains To Brazil

Alex Worsnip 15/09/2006

Rating: 4/5

It's 2031: the 25 year anniversary of Guillemots' come-from-behind Mercury Music Prize win over the hotly-tipped Arctic Monkeys. This win proved the final nail in the coffin of the Arctic Monkeys' declining popularity, as their star fell as soon as the NME-fuelled hype died down. Guillemots, meanwhile, triumphantly released this single, which shot straight to number 1, heralding the start of a multi-million selling career which left Coldplay and U2 in the dust.

And now, as they prepare to reissue this track 25 years later, it sounds as good as ever. It showcases that expert blend of melancholy and jubilation that all the best British bands capture, and which Guillemots perfected so well in years to come, matching wide-eyed vocals with perfect harmonies, bright trumpets and strange synths which combine to form a near-perfect whole. The lyrics, meanwhile, display a real knack for a turn of phrase ("darling, they'll still remind me of when we were at school/when they could never have persuaded me that lives like yours were in the hands of these erroneous fools"). The song is a precursor of the things that were to come: music that would change the mainstream of UK music forever.

Well, we can dream...