100 Greatest Songs of the 20’s #33 Raye, 070 Shake – Escapism

Released: 2022

More than anything in Britain, we love to see our heroes broken. This isn’t – necessarily – a vindictive want, more that as a nation stars are more relatable when they’ve been sprinkled with some hard luck dust from the un-magic fairy.

Exhibit A of course was Amy Winehouse, a singer who had an almost incalculable talent for moving us and fucking up in equal measure; the poignancy of Back To Black made these feelings almost tangible, imperfections we could all empathise with, because to err is to live on this little rock in the sea.

Comparisons are easily made and often never really thought about. Raye’s career prior to the self released debut My 21st Century Blues was a lesson in how talent can be mis-managed, but Escapism’s fractured hedonism made her yet another one that got away. A jam which had her character staring into the abyss and just jumping right in, it was a story of break ups and the broken, the emotional wreckage exactly the kind of mess we prefer to see never repaired.