100 Greatest Songs of the 00’s #72 The View – Same Jeans

Released: 2007

The View! The View! The View are on fire! the shout famously used to go at the Dundonian band’s early gigs, their rise from the depths of Tayside something like that of a phoenix emerging from the flames. Just kidding, nobody seems to know how it really got started, but fronted by the angelic looking Kyle Falconer, they and a handful of other outfits set about reinvigorating indie (and behaving badly) after it had been left in a boredeom coma by the likes of Snow Patrol, Coldplay and Travis.

Scallywags, the group’s first major tour became infamous for a management imposed hotel ban, but despite appearances and against the tide of trust funded posh boys faking it, Falconer and co. were both instrumentally proficient and ready to decant their hometown experiences into joyous songs owing as much to Bob Dylan as tunes by other acts did to acrid post punk.

The Dundee they hung out in was their muse, the home of characters – and mischief – galore. Recorded with Oasis producer Owen Morris, the quartet’s debut album Hats Off To The Buskers was ultimately nominated for a Mercury Prize, but it’s rewards were much more for the kid in the street than an industry suit worried about the contents of a mini bar. It’s peak was Same Jeans, an anthem to hedonism for the sake of it, of not caring about anything other than the good times, where the essential fashion accessory was a toothless hairbrush. Shuffling punk-folk, it scissored around with helter skelter vibrancy, sound like a nougthies Lonnie Donergan on really good E. At this point The View were on the crest of a wave, on more pills than a chemist and very much on fire.