The Rakes - 1989

(For the Record, March 17, 2009)

Close your eyes and imagine Gina Yashere.

Yes, yes, just do it.

You can only see her head, and her lips are flapping away, saying something like, "It was such a happy moment," or something equally profound, about Scott and Charlene's wedding, or the day Samantha Fox's 'Touch Me' went to number three with a bullet.

Well, Yashere was actually the star guest in I Love 1986.

What we want to see is I Love 1989. Which didn't have Yashere present, but did feature Frank Bruno, Judy Finnegan and Leslie Grantham.

Or, oh look, The Rakes. They love 1989. So much that they penned this little ditty about the wonder of the year.

Rocking in a very angular, indie sort of a way, the melodic guitar line seems to bow to Bowie's 'China Girl' and The Vapors' 'Turning Japanese' (neither of which were 1989 singles, so that could be imagined), crystal clear and chiming.

Alan Donohoe's curiously flat voice cuts through the jangle, intoning his memories of 1989; "Punks were hanging out in the park/While someone practised electric guitar" apparently.

Other people remember shell suits and home perms, but The Rakes have retained only the coolest events of the fag-end of the second worst decade since the birth of rock.

Slicing through the rose-tinted recollections, the "lala la la la" chorus smacks of radio-friendly pop brilliance, and the parting shot of "1989... It was 1989" wavers Donohoe tremulously.

I love 1989.