Ouch!

This song is the very essence of a deep cut, at least for us Americans. It actually reached #5 in the UK charts, but I’ve never talked to a single American who’s even heard of this band.

The song is called “Pain Killer (Summer Rain)” and it is by British indie rock band Turin Brakes. I almost wrote about one of their earlier singles, “Mind Over Money,” but decided that it’s too depressing of a song to post about. It is! “Pain Killer” isn’t exactly what I would call a happy song, but I’m certain it won’t make you jump off a bridge.

Turin Brakes falls into a kind of niche category of indie rock that is basically just two harmonizing voices, two guitars, and session musicians playing the bass and drums. Lead singer Olly Knights has a dramatic nasally tenor voice that I happen to adore. With all the thousands of notable voices in indie rock, I would recognize his anywhere. 

I really love the chorus of this song. As with most Turin Brakes songs, I genuinely cannot even guess what the lyrics mean, but here are the lyrics:

Summer rain

Drippin’ down your face again

Summer rain

Prayin’ someone feels the same 

Take the pain killer

Cycle on your bicycle

Leave all this misery behind

Even though I don’t know what they intended to mean, these lyrics are extremely evocative to me. On more than one occasion, in the late aughts, I imagined myself riding my bicycle into the distance and leaving all of my misery behind. I probably should have. But instead, I was left with a moderately successful British indie rock song stuck in my head.
It’s possible I’m just being melodramatic because it’s Monday and I have a super busy week ahead. But that’s okay. 

The music video is also quite decent!