"All of This and Nothing" is a series of weekly posts, each about one song I really love, by an artist I haven't featured in the previous This Year, Portions For Foxes, or Better Things series. It alternates between Obscure and Famous songs; feel free to argue either way if you're so inclined. See the introduction for more.
You know this song, I expect: it's by Franz Ferdinand, the lead-off song on their 2004 self-titled record. Jacqueline.
Does anyone pick up a new record, put it on, and listen to it from the beginning anymore? Did they do that even twenty years ago?
I suppose some of us did - though most of us hear songs as one-offs, on the radio in 2004 or streaming in 2026 or beamed directly to our brains in 2038.
This is one of the greatest introductions to a band out there, starting slow and quiet, telling a story, and then kicking into the sound we've all become familiar with since, with that killer guitar line picking up at about the 0:45 mark.
That intro seems to have nothing to do with the lyrics in the loud part of the song, but the first verse is actually a true story - the other verse, as far as I know, is fictional, about a guy named Gregor who might be about to get into a major pub fight.
What do the two verses have to do with each other, or with the chorus? Like a lot of songs, a lot of good, quirky interesting songs, it's not anything obvious and straightforward - Jacqueline is a song to think about as well as a song to just experience.
And, for another piece of the song that also doesn't necessarily fit nicely like a puzzle piece with the verses and intro: the refrain has probably popped into your head over the past twenty years, now and then, its own little Zen koan. Because, no matter who we are, no matter how much we say we like what we do, and find meaning in our work, and all that, well...
It's always better on holiday
So much better on holiday
That's why we only work when
We need the money
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