10 Britpop Bangers You Totally Forgot Existed
8. Rialto – Monday Morning 5:19 (1998)
With an intro of drums echoing away somewhere in the distance, melancholic orchestral strings and infrequent, dejected arpeggios, Monday Morning 5:19 has an immediately foreboding quality. A detached rumble of a kettledrum punctuates the chorus, which is one of the most catchy and anthemic stanzas to come out of the Britpop era.
Singer and lead writer Louis Eliot sings with a wide-eyed sense of disbelief, the paranoia of the unfaithfulness of a lover numbing his emotions. The lyrics start off with profound mundanity (“at first I guess she’s gone to get herself a pack of cigarettes, a pint of milk, food for the cat,”) before a final verse that topples us into the deepest chasm of fear and insecurity, isolating our protagonist even further.
A despairing loss- of-love song that preceded that subject’s contemporary archetype – Mr Brightside – by seven years. It’s cracking stuff.
STANDOUT LYRIC: At half past two I picture her / In the back of someone else's car / He runs his fingers through her hair / Oh, you shouldn't let him touch you there.