10 Catchiest Indie Rock Songs
4. Kaiser Chiefs – Ruby
Before appearing on the BBC/ITV’s flagship prime-time caterwauling rotate-‘em-up ‘The Voice’, Leeds’ finest Ricky Wilson had another job – fronting up the 2000s charts staple, the Kaiser Chiefs. Between predicting riots and not being able to believe how far away from home they all are, Wilson and his fellow Chiefs found time to pen a modern hymn of pure devotion to romance, and one special lady in particular. Everybody knows her name, because there’s very little chance you can sing it a full 32 times in one song and not hammer your point home.
‘Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, Ruby.’
If your brain didn’t automatically fill in the backing vocals with a hearty ‘Ahhhhhhh,’, then congratulations, dear reader: you’re either one of the four people on the planet not to have heard the song, or you’re an unthinking, unfeeling robot of either Replicant or Skynet persuasion. Please visit your nearest Rick Deckard/Sarah Connor so that your joyless soul may never taint another music top ten list.
One can only imagine that if Ricky Wilson had written a song about them, the swoon that followed would be something of biblical proportions. That’s why it’s so difficult to understand Ruby. Who would turn down that Yorkshire heartthrob, especially at his 2006 best, complete with Beatles hairdo? As hard as her motivations are to understand, this ode to her is so, so easy to wrap your lips around. Just like Ricky Wilson, eh?