"We can’t get arrested in the US. [My manager] told me it was because my music had subtleties that the Americans don’t get, like irony. Or sarcasm. Which made me laugh, because that’s just such a bullshit comment. Anyone who’s watched Seinfeld knows that’s a completely ridiculous thing.”
Jamie T, The Guardian
To be fair to London singer-songwriter Jamie T's (Jamie Treays) manager, the kind of crowd that Seinfield pulled in may not be the same crowd that buys tickets to watch live indie music shows. It is also easy to miss the irony and sarcasm in a song like "Tescoland", a single from his recent album Trick(2016).
The title might suggest a caustic, dark song about the mundanity of life in a soul-sucking capitalist landscape in the vein of Sonic Youth's "The Sprawl" (especially when the music video is prefaced by a suicide in 'frozen foods aisle 5'), but the track amounts to an infectious high energy and narrative-driven indie pop-rock track that sees Jamie pondering on life back in England after crossing the Atlantic Ocean to seek fame, recognition, success and an opportunity for self-reinvention:
'I ain't gotta first line sing for whateverAlways in the heart beat a friend of mineNew York, New York in a hot, hot summerLeaving the place low all of the time
"I just got my heart broke home in the winter"Oh no he said Paul laugh and a cryDon't ever tell them the old broke recordThey won't understand or even know of this crime
But it's hard for AmericansTo really understandWhat it takes from a manLivin' on shattered loveWalk through Tescoland'
Lyrics: AZLyrics
Jamie T balances out the track's carefree rock-and-roll bravado with some sombre realizations about the limits of music and travel as a means of self-reinvention:
'I was just a fool too singing a new lowWhat's new I've fallen from my old high streetBase can get you though I'm broader than BroadwayBroader than Broadway in my own defeatWho am I kidding man I love to hateLove to sail away like a rolling stoneEvery plan I make's meant to take me further awayBut I always end up back at homeHomeBack homeIn TescolandIn TescolandIn TescolandIn TescolandIn Tescoland'
Even if some of the subtlety and irony at work here is lost on the casual listener, his irreverent, rambunctious optimism will certainly be appreciated. Life has to go on, after all, regardless if one lives in Tescoland or Wallmartworld.
