Anglopole's Ponglish World

Music carries sounds that can sooth, elevate, encourage, inspire, enrage, irritate and words that can do the same. It can then have a greater impact on people than words alone, all the more that we tend to listen to our favourite music quite often, all the time, in some cases – in mine certainly (especially in the car). I am aware that all that I have just said is truism or a cliche, but even these are sometimes worth repeating. As I was watching the riots that flooded many streets of some British cities and towns I immediately thought of Ed Sheeran’s music and the latest CD I bought, namely No. 5 Collaborations Project.

Ed Sheeran belongs to a group of those British artists who have a lot to say, a lot to sing and shout about, and have the talent to do so, but do not really care about the charts and fame, which is what has always attracted me to such artists. With other talented singers he makes a true statement in one of the songs, called ‘Radio’:

I never had a playlist in my heart, oho
Now I need an A list just to chart
but I’ve been famous from the start
How am I gonna make my mark
Are you gonna play me, though, song was never meant for the radio
I get …radio spin, I’m just doing my thing, and I don’t have time for a playlist
How much will you pay me though? the song was not a hit on the radio, oho, oho, oho, oh

For this reason I have not been listening to radio for a long time…. I’d rather dig out good music and get addicted to something that is of value.

Here’s a song that makes me thing of the films I once wrote about here ‘Adulthood’ , ‘Kidulthood’  and ‘This Is England’ – as you can see, the reality these films refer too is not one that will change anytime soon and the riots that happened last week were a living proof of the morality or rather lack thereof that permeates the youngsters in Britain.

Yes, I know it happens in many other countries and not just Britain. But, not many other countries put themselves up to mentor those in the third world (or developing, as I should put it to be more politically correct), for example.

If a Britishman is singing:

‘London calls me a stranger,
A traveller Ohoohohh,
This is now my home, My home,
Oh Woah..’

… then what can an expat to Britain say? This is my home and this is precisely why I allow myself the freedom to talk about the reality here the way I see it and the way it is.

In a beautiful and moving way, Ed tells true life stories of many anonymous citizens Great Britain who may not be finding their life here too great at all…..

What can I say, I am grateful singers like Ed Sheeran use their talents to do what the government institutions fail to do so often – to notice what is seemingly ugly, taboo, unnoticeable!

Keep up the good work Ed, I’d say! I am surely your fan!