My Festive 35 from 1997

What was once a list of 50 favourite songs, was reduced to just 35(?) this year (and the following year it was only 30), so I wonder if even then I was beginning to lose interest in contemporary pop music. I was only 22 when I compiled this, but I think it marked a time when the pop music of the past became as important to me as the pop music of the present. This is somewhat reflected in the appearance of Prefab Sprout in this list. Prefab Sprout are essentially an 80s band, and I’d only properly discovered them the previous year, but in 1997 they released their first album in 7 years. I am the sort of person who considers the 80s to be a far superior decade musically to the 90s even though the 90s could be considered my formative years and are also the decade in which I took the effort to compile these Festive 50s.

1. No Surprises – Radiohead
2. Bachelorette – Bjork
3. Always Been With You – Idha
4. Electric Guitars – Prefab Sprout
5. Song 2 – Blur
6. Summertime – The Sundays
7. Into My Arms – Nick Cave
8. Everybody Knows (Except You) – The Divine Comedy
9. Best Bit – Beth Orton
10. Nothing Lasts Forever – Echo and the Bunnymen
11. Novocaine for the Soul – Eels
12. Tomorrow – James
13. It’s Clear – Dubstar
14. A Prisoner of the Past – Prefab Sprout
15. Paranoid Android – Radiohead
16. Western Eyes – Portishead
17. Undressed – White Town
18. Hey Honey – Idha
19. Help the Aged – Pulp
20. Someone – The Divine Comedy
21. Andromeda Heights
22. The Boy Done Good – Billy Bragg
23. 86’d – Subcircus
24. Sunday Shining – Finley Quaye
25. The View From Here – Dubstar
26. What Do You Want From Me – Monaco
27. Airbag – Radiohead
28. Ain’t That Enough- Teenage Fanclub
29. Mourning Air – Portishead
30. Magic Piper of Love – Edwyn Collins
31. Swans – Prefab Sprout
32. Electricity – Spritualized
33. Sun Hits the Sky – Supergrass
34. Just Moved In – Idha
35. Play It Cool – Super Furry Animals

I’m wondering if No. 18 is the most obscure song to ever appear here. It was only ever a b-side.