Pop Thursday : A New England – Kirsty McColl

It’s odd really. I’m not big on covers or people who feel that they can re-work a song because they can make a song better, more relevant or whatever but one of my favourite songs of all time is Kirsty McColl’s cover of Billy Bragg’s A New England. She took a cool underground song and turned it into pure pop without losing its inherent greatness.

Listen to those brilliant bass runs, those extra layers of guitar textures and of course Miss McColl’s brilliant voice. Instead of the commercial video version I have gone for the superior extended 12″ version. The intro of this is the benchmark for building into a song and as it drops into place just before the vocals come in you get to hear the two most perfectly chosen guitar notes in pop history. You’ve gotta love that.