London… the cultural and economic bastion of the western world from which some of the globe’s most coveted artists have emerged and from which some of the most famous songs have been inspired.
If the riveting sleeve notes of ‘London: Songs to Define the City’ are anything to go by, it is a place in which ‘memories are made and dreams are fulfilled’. Maybe, but can a textbook tourist-guide like compilation really be enough to convince us accordingly? It’s a long shot.
Presented as a supermarket-friendly musical souvenir that takes us on a journey around some of London’s most famous landmarks through some of her most enduring musical works (complete with a pull out map included), the concept borders dangerously on being cheesy and plastic, awkwardly attempting to nestle together otherwise unrelated songs into some kind of family-friendly coffee table collective, the very kind of thing that Blur’s epochal ‘Parklife’ LP so gloriously mocked.
‘London: Songs to Define the City’ flows a bit like a Radiohead singles compilation; whilst all of the songs are coming from the same place, their respective styles and contexts are worlds apart, linked only by the reverberating kerching! of a cash register.
But despite the corporate feel that eternally lingers underneath the compilation’s unabated resolution, the sum of its parts are made up of many unweathered classics and triumphant stand-alone songs that need not be hindered by the environment that they have found themselves cattle-prodded into. Albeit, the treacherous nature of the flow means you’re better off forming your own playlist from the generally hit-and-miss collection of songs on offer.
If the happy-go-lucky CD cover and the gimmicky pull out map weren’t enough to make you squirm impulsively, then surely opening number, Roxy Music’s ‘Do the Strand’, will do the job. The clunky and tiresome nature of the song does well to reflect the spectacularly precise social commentary on show (Arabs at oasis, Eskimos and Chinese, if you feel blue…), something that only becomes more cringe-inducing (Weary of the waltz, and mashed potato schmaltz…). Jamie Callum’s ‘London Skies’ shouldn’t pick things up either, even if it is a welcome retreat from the previous ordeal.
But as the opening shuffle of ‘Waterloo Sunset’ bounces through the speakers all harmony is restored. What Robert Christgau once labelled as ‘the most beautiful song in the English language’ still sounds crisply endearing and angelically-reassuring every time you hear it. Similar things can be said about the joyous march of ‘Piccadilly’, another Kinks number that serves to reinforce London’s best qualities.
Other famous numbers are scattered throughout, from the cutie-pie ‘Soho Square’ to the swinging ambiance of Gerry Rafferty’s ‘Baker Street’, there really is something for everyone. But it’s the deeper cuts at the tail end of the tracklisting that are the most peculiar things on show here. There’s the crunching stomp of The Jam’s ‘Strange Town’, the falsetto cadence of Pulp’s ‘Bar Italia’ and even the uplifting soul of Duffy’s ‘Warwick Avenue’ to break the clichéd formula that dominates the first half of the album.
A few skippable tracks follow; with forgettable songs by famous faces (David Bowie’s ‘The London Boys’) but the compilation’s closing number is truly a wonder to behold. Saint Etienne’s ‘London Belongs to Me’ is well worth the wait. It seems life-affirming and reassuring, heavenly and arousing, crystallised and ethereal. If this is what London can inspire, then perhaps the concept of this collection is not necessarily a bad thing, however lazily-executed it can sometimes seem.
With twenty tracks in total, ‘London: Songs to Define the City’ can be an exhaustive and demanding listen, hardly the background-friendly soundtrack aesthetic suggested by the album’s packaging. But the classics speak for themselves, and although the sum of its parts are stronger than the whole, these scattered gems alone are enough reason to indulge in the concept in the unlikely scenario that you don’t already have them already.
silly reviewer, piccadilly is a squeeze song not a kinks song!