3:11
single, 1979
Written by Pete Shelley
This song takes you by surprise. It comes at you like a punk anthem, with typically bleak, nihilistic lyrics: "Life's an illusion / Love is a dream." But, ahead of its time, the song goes loud/quiet/loud, as a falsetto chorus stretches the song out before it bounces back into a punk beat, and then back again. The bridge strips things down to rhythm and repetition, singer Pete Shelley tweaking each line just enough to destabilize meaning. By the end, he flips perspective entirely, from cynicism to something like clarity: "Now I know just what it is."
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