What: Over her twenty-year career, singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl worked with The Pogues, Billy Bragg, Robert Plant, and The Smiths. She did nouveau-'60s-girl-group-pop ("They Don't Know"), snarky holiday non-cheer ("Fairytale of New York"), and bitter British wistfulness ("A New England").
In Tropical Brainstorm, which landed on several "Best of 2001" lists, MacColl rides some powerful Cuban and Brazilian influences as she sings about escape, strategic footwear, stalking a one-time fan, internet bonking, and football as metaphor.
Representative lyrics: "He'll learn to hunt and I'll teach him to fish/ We'll boil up our rice in a satellite dish/ We'll plant cassava wherever we can/ Us Amazonians always get our man" (from "Us Amazonians")
Bonus representative lyrics: "If you hadn't passed out while I was talking to your friend/ It could have really ended badly 'cause you very nearly had me/ If he hadn't taken pity on my heart full of desire/ I might never have found out you're a serial liar" (from "England 2, Colombia 0")
How to get it: I'm going to suggest you buy the whole album, of course, but if you'd just like a taste first, most of these songs are 99-cent downloads on iTunes.
Connection to previous Wreckage: The song "In These Shoes?" tends to pop up all over. As just one example, it's used in the opening credits of The Catherine Tate Show (Rec. #81).
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