Bernard Sumner’s favourite indie songs
What does the term ‘indie rock’ even mean anymore? Does a record just being released on an independent label make it indie? In which case was The Beatles self-releasing their records on Apple Corp indie? Is it only indie if the band themselves have packaged the record and “done it themselves”? Is it more about making music your own way, unaffected by any commercial pressures? Is it Catfish and the Bottlemen? No.
As the term ‘indie’ has only become more nebulous with age, as has any idea of the genre having an inventor. I mean, who could possibly claim to lay the groundwork for independent rock? I’d start by looking at the above and finding someone who can embody all three. Joy Division guitarist and New Order mainman Bernard Sumner is a great place to start.
In Joy Division, he showed the musical possibilities that punk could lead to a few years before New Wave proved him right. He did so while self-releasing the records himself at first and then on Factory, an indie label, next. Then he completely re-wrote the rulebook of what an “indie band” could achieve with New Order, a synthesis of post-punk and synth-pop that influenced everyone from The Pet Shop Boys to Rihanna.
That’s some serious credentials right there. While we’re talking about definitions, Sumner talked through his favourite songs on the BBC’s Tracks of My Years, so let’s look at his favourite indie tracks, and we can see what Sumner himself considers indie.
Bernard Sumner’s favourite indie songs:
4. ‘The Boy With The Thorn In His Side’ – The Smiths
Speaking of candidates for inventing indie. Fellow Mancs The Smiths are still probably the blueprint your common-or-garden indie band would follow to this day. Jangly guitars, emotive lyrics, a die-hard fanbase, whiter than a tip-exed snowman and a troubling descent into middle age. Ah, well, at least Johnny Marr is still sane.
It’s always better to focus on the tunes for the legacy, and Moz n’ Marr have them by the truckload, this choice cut from The Queen Is Dead, ‘The Boy With The Thorn In His Side’, being one of the best. Sumner joins a hallowed cast of devotees to this song, including the likes of J Mascis, Belle and Sebastian and Jeff Buckley, who’ve all covered this song.
3. ‘Sense’ – The Lightning Seeds
If there’s one thing that New Order did, it’s show off the band’s hidden depths. The band, up until that point known for their shockingly dark, deeply intense work in Joy Division, responded to the kind of tragedy that would end most bands by showing off their love of Moroder and Donna Sumner. Strutting onto the dancefloor and expanding the vocab of the guitar band as a whole.
The Lightning Seeds, especially nowadays, do the same. Known across the world as the band that gave the world the “it’s coooooming home” chant, a closer look shows a band whose stock in trade is literate, bittersweet love songs like this total joy, ‘Sense’, which is as musically sparky as it is lyrically melancholy.
2. ‘Forest Fire’ – Lloyd Cole and the Commotions
If there was ever a song that could be called “your favourite artist’s favourite song”, this classic from 1984 is one hell of a candidate. It was a small hit, reaching number 41, but the sheer amount of artists who talk up Cole as one of the most underrated artists of his day is staggering. I mean, put it this way, the Lloyd in Camera Obscura’s ‘Lloyd, I’m Ready To Be Heartbroken’? Yes, that’s Lloyd Cole in response to his track ‘Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken?’
Putting this banger on the list is just about the indiest thing Sumner could have done. Not just for the industry kudos the artist gets but also for the disarming honesty of the lyrics. Few people can get away with opening a chorus with “I believe in love, I believe in anything”, but of course, it would be appreciated by a guy confident enough to open a song with “How does it feel to treat me like you do?”
1. ‘Kingdom of Rust’ – Doves
Finally, it all comes back to home. Doves aren’t just a band that is from Manchester. Like Sumner, their music is a full-on response to the capital of the North in all its urban glory. This song, the breathtaking first single and title track to their 2009 record, compares a faded relationship singer and songwriter Jimi Goodwin still longs for to his complicated feelings to the “kingdom of rust” his hometown has become.
It’s also a tribute to the way both artists combine open-hearted melodies with more experimental influences. Goodwin himself cited Kraftwerk as a key inspiration in making the record this single comes from, and Sumner himself lists the Krautrock gods’ ‘Telephone Call’ as another of his favourite tracks of all time in the same list.
