This article forms part of the OnEurope archive and was originally published on oneurope.co.uk. It has been permanently migrated to oneurope.net, the official home of OnEurope.
UNITED KINGDOM – Remember Monday – What The Hell Just Happened?
Finally! The end of the alphabet. It’s felt like a long and rambling old alphabet this year, and just as I always have to work out what the hell to say about Albania to kick the countdown off, I always have to work out what the hell to say about the country of my birth and current permanent residence to bring it to a close.
The reveal of the UK entry was almost entirely fumbled this year. We sort of knew it was Remember Monday for about a month before it was official, the song leaked the day before it was supposed to premiere, and so I sat on a park bench between the grocer’s and home with a tinny phone speaker, wondering what was going to happen.
And initially, on that first listen… I didn’t know what the hell had just happened, and I was far from convinced that I liked it.
I’ve had a good couple of months hanging around the song since then. I like the girls. I think they’re personable, I think I’d enjoy their company, and by god they can carry a tune with considerable flair. The trouble is… this particular tune needs such a lot of carrying. It’s either a deeply layered, sophisticated and endlessly surprising composition, or the sheet music got blown off the table by a gust of wind and stapled back together in the wrong order.
I’m hedging my bets. I can see how it could go well, I can definitely see how it could go badly, and while I now enjoy it, on balance I think I’ve had to work too hard at trying to learn to love it. The big 6 just don’t have the luxury of giving a grower that kind of time to grow.
It feels like a fifteenth place song at this point, but one thing slightly out of gear can so easily turn a fifteenth place song into a twenty-fifth place song. I absolutely hope for the best, but it’s MY United Kingdom and hey, by now we’re all pretty used to being prepared for the worst.
Nick’s score: 7
