16 December 2010
A year after the ‘Killing In The Name’ eejitry of Christmas 2009, had everyone copped themselves on? Not at all. It kicked off again for Christmas 2010 when that year’s X Factor winner’s single, this retitled cover of Biffy Clyro’s ‘Many Of Horror’, was greeted with another online campaign: get the original to the UK Christmas number one spot instead! That the foot-soldiers of performative authenticity fell short by a greater distance this time around—the re-mobilised ‘Many Of Horror’ only got to no. 8 in the UK and no. 10 in Ireland—was somewhat heartening. (Here in Ireland the Christmas 2010 local opposition, held off at no. 2, was The Rubberbandits’ ‘Horse Outside’.)
It almost goes without saying that a perceived slight to the honour of ‘Many Of Horror’, an overwrought and string-sweetened rock ballad by the sort of UK landfill indie guitar band you were all ignoring the other 11 months of the year, was hardly a hill worth dying on. Matt Cardle’s iteration, ‘When We Collide’, is Blunt-esque milquetoast acoustic singer-songer fare. I note it has the same sort of saccharine strings as Biffy Clyro’s original. Yes, the inevitable climactic key change, which exists on the record only to soundtrack the moment in the video when Matt gets his named called out as the winner, is cynical and undignified. My point is: it’s a cover of a Biffy Clyro song. Let’s keep a bit of perspective here.
