Micko & The Mellotronics – Viva La Underdog

Micko Westmoreland (along with The Mellotronics) is meticulously cementing his position among England’s greatest observational songwriters by creating a body of work octopus-like in its tentacular reach into musical and and psychological territories. This latest single Viva La Underdog has its roots in a very personal space in which Micko draws upon time spent with his ailing mother watching re-runs of television shows in a nostalgic bubble to mitigate her condition. Lyrically the song hints at better, if harsher times and the tension between recollection of the past and living in the moment. It also celebrates the perennial underdog, offering some hope and affirmation that things can be better. Micko states that the song is also a tribute to his late friend and mentor Neil Innes (Bonzo Dog Doo-dah Band and The Rutles) who helped lay the foundations for a very English, very eccentric form of musical art.

Musically, Micko embraces his influences, combining the guitar fizz of the more introspective side of Buzzcocks, the wit and storytelllng of Squeeze, and the quirky, plangent guitar tones of Graham Coxon. It’s sharp upbeat powerpop with Micko’s trademark off-kilter chord changes underscored with a dreamy space synth under the chorus that imbues the track with the feel of how the future was viewed in the past. It’s a genre-defying musicality that must be a double-edged sword for Micko – he is unique and idiosyncratic in an industry that demands homogeneity and thought-free pigeonholing. The video reintroduces Sooty and Sweep (hand puppets from the 1950s through to the 90s) as lifesize characters, a theme that visually represents the intrusion of the past into the present and the omnipresence of facets of past life in the current. It’s a theme that consciously or unconsciously replicates the circumstances surrounding the song’s origins: by inserting his own son into the video and surrounding him with fragments of the past, Micko becomes the patient, musically documenting himself in the moment, in real time.

Micko Westmoreland is a treasure. His music is important both in itself and as a symbol of the resistance to corporate rock and pop. He is the eponymous underdog barking at the door. Let’s hope he breaks out and gets a good run soon. Viva La Underdog, from the album The Trinity, is out now on Landline Records.