My Top 2000 Songs #1126: While Wrecking The Car

Despite his bona fides as one of the original UK punks, Damned bassist/guitarist Captain Sensible [a.k.a. Raymond Burns] carved out a respectable pop career, with some surprisingly adventurous baroque pop records. He's at his most tuneful on "While Wrecking The Car," the opening track on 1996's Mad Cows & Englishmen, arguably his best solo album (and, alas, the last one he released). It's a quirky, complex yet delightfully catchy track, very English, conjuring Robyn Hitchcock and post-ska Madness and the Jazz Butcher, not to mention a whole lotta Billy Bragg. The title refrain is one of those earworms you'll hum all week, guaranteed.