Singles

The Crimea - Lottery Winners On Acid

Bill Cummings 09/01/2006

Rating: 4/5

I had a dream a few weeks ago. Picture the scene: I'm 12 and we are at the local fair, my mother has abandoned me, I'm lost amongst the sickly sweet smells of toffee apples and candy floss, children scream out from the terrifying roller coaster above. I wander in a daze towards the waltzers and get on, round and round until I am delirious, my head is spinning, I'm lost but happy. How does this relate to the new single from the Crimea? Well, “Lottery Winners on Acid” is the soundtrack to this dream, a deliciously bittersweet waltz of guitars and Wurlitzers, pierced by Davey McManus' Eliott Smith-esque vocals.

A song about obsessive love (“She gets a disease/I want a disease/If she goes tripping/I go falling over”), the dark lyrics are counterbalanced by a toffee apple-sweet melody. "Lottery Winners on Acid" is beautifully off kilter, a song that brings to mind the Smiths, the Kinks and Bright Eyes in one single track. Little wonder then that the late, great John Peel fell so hopelessly in love with this song. Ironically its now gaining airplay on Radio One “Daytime” as Colin and Edith's download of the week. Hopefully this will expose the album “Tragedy Rocks” to the attention it so richly deserves.