Dropkick
Scampi for Christmas
No catalogue number
2007
Scampi for Christmas? Not one of the usual choices of repast at this time of year but Edinburgh popsters Dropkick manage to squeeze a Christmas song out of it.
It seems a trivial song on first acquaintance as the tale of this sad, lonely individual who only has scampi (described wryly as the poor man's langoustine) for his Christmas dinner as it is "… the only thing he loves". No Christmas pudding for him as his dinner will ready in under five minutes. But it would not be the Dropkick way to give us something that simple (and indeed as heartless) as that. They throw in a main course of dry humour as the protagonist shares a piece of scampi with a robin - "… shares it with the bird". Indeed, by inference, as scampi is the only thing he loves then he has no one to love. Skilfully disguising festive season loneliness as a witty ditty, that lyrical Dropkick dexterity is once more on show.
This is a clever little song and it makes a welcome addition to the festive playlist. It is kind of sentimental too but not in a sugary way. Jaunty yet sad at the same time, any song that manages to squeeze a deep fat fryer into the lyrics works for us. Christmas might well be the loneliest time of the year but at least Dropkick are making us smile.
Available as a free download from their MySpace page.