100 Greatest Songs of the 20’s So Far #74 Hamish Hawk – The Mauritian Doubles Badminton Champion, 1973

Released: 2021

There probably won’t be a longer title in this series, but in the nano-attention span 20’s you can be assured that just reading through to the end of The Mauritian Doubles Badminton Champion, 1973 is worth the effort.

Hamish Hawk couldn’t have been accused of not having earned his shot by the time 2021’s Heavy Elevator was released, having to that point point seen eight years of work create at best minor ripples. Whilst many would’ve baulked at the thought of making their audience work so hard, access to the singer’s literate, funny and occasionally vulnerable sounding world was a joy, one which deserved not to simply be given away.

Hawk is a huge fan of the similarly urbane Bill Callahan (You can hear Jarvis Cocker in there somewhere too), but The Mauritian Doubles Badminton Champion, 1973 was a triumph for British absurdity. With a twinkling guitar line and in the jaw dropping first couplet “To write a cathedral, I’ll need a ballpoint pen/It’ll sound like Common People, sung by Christopher Wren” there was also an immediate payoff. It was a story – both his and of the song’s – which underlined that patience is a virtue.