Single Of The Week - Graham Coxon : What'll It Take

I like Graham Coxon. When I was eighteen, he told me I my life was full of possibility. It was 1997, and we were having a drink in the bar of a shitty hotel in Adelaide and I was complaining about having a small life in a small town, my fear of being trapped in a small town forever, and he told me I shouldn’t assume anything about the future. He also said be careful what you wish for. And even though I was 18 and sort of morbidly self-obsessed, I took a moment to appreciate that he was trying to be nice to me. I also noticed that he seemed both irritated and deeply uncomfortable with the world, an observation that has coloured my experience of his music ever since. This tune, taken from his soon-to-be-released new solo album, is flickering electro of a Krautrock persuasion. The sound is new, but all I really hear is Coxon shouting, ‘What’s wrong with me?’ over and over. Fifteen years on, he still seems irritated and uncomfortable. I like it. He’s old, but still honest. A dependable miserablist with a punk rock heart.