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And finally, on the 24th track, we actually match up with my record collection (not counting the copy of Now 40 itself I own for research purposes). I didn't actually buy the single during its chart run (though plenty did - according to one uploader this was their biggest seller) but in my last few weeks of teenagerhood I'd picked up the massive International Velvet album on vinyl. I'd obviously heard the breakthrough hit 'Mulder & Scully' and quite liked it at the time, but once I played the LP this was the obvious stand-out track and the one that really seemed to establish them (or at least Cerys Matthews) as major stars.
Like their previous hit, 'Road Rage' hints at topicality in its title, but it's a much more topical-sounding record entirely, a smoothly grooving dub-influenced number. It's driven by the bassline of Paul Jones (just to give a mention to one of the other band members for a change) while Matthews coos an exasperated lyric in a disturbingly quiet voice, as if she's on the verge of doing something dramatic. Unfortunately the tongue-twisting line "as all you've got to lose alludes to yesterday" is cut out from this radio edit, and the published lyric "It's not over till my rage runs colder" isn't audible in any version I've ever heard. Inevitably, it shows its age a little now, but it's still a delicious piece and for the first time on this album I've made an addition to my highlights playlist.
Although this was the last evidence of it in the Now series, Cerys sang on no fewer than nine Top 40 hits between January 1998 and December 1999, including both a duet with Tom Jones and one about him.
Also appearing on: Now 39
Available on: Greatest Hits
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