Almost 14 years ago, a YouTube user posted a homemade music video of sorts for “You Should All Be Murdered,” an even older song by Another Sunny Day, the solo project of UK singer-songwriter Harvey Williams. It was originally released on the band’s 1992 album London Weekend, and I’ve included it on many mixtapes and playlists since rediscovering it years later. “You Should All Be Murdered” shares the jangly guitar and moody lyrics typical of mid-80s Smiths (and Williams sounds uncannily like golden-era Steven Patrick Morrissey—you know, before we knew he’s a racist).
Williams later became a member of the bands the Field Mice and Trembling Blue Stars, and all of his projects released material via the truly great Sarah Records, a Bristol-based independent label active from the late 80s through the mid-90s that specialized in music that might be considered twee or, less derisively, indie pop. Sarah Records still has a passionate group of fans to this day, and in 2015, Canadian author and editor Michael White wrote a fantastic history of the label, Popkiss, for Bloomsbury Press.
But back to this “Murdered” song: the video consists entirely of black-and-white footage with a Pixelvision-like veneer, shot from inside a moving commuter train so that the reflection of the interior of the car sometimes commingles with the view of gray trees and rail tracks outside. Don’t get the wrong idea—this isn’t a song about actual murders. Williams sings, “One day, when the world is set to right,” and then lists the kinds of people he wants eradicated from the planet—among them “The people who are cruel to those that don’t deserve” and “The people who just give in / The people who don’t fight / The people I don’t like.” It’s the theme song for when I was 13 and pissed off at my clothes, my life, the world, all you pricks—but I still did my chores and showed up at the dinner table. Thirteen, or perhaps 40-ish. I’ve been playing it pretty much every day during the pandemic. v
The Listener is a weekly sampling of music Reader staffers love. Absolutely anything goes, and you can reach us at thelistener@chicagoreader.com.