Image courtesy of BBC

Despite not having as large a following as genre-mates Frightened Rabbit, Scottish indie-folk band Admiral Fallows has always had a special place in my heart. From the moment I first hear the bombastic chorus of their first single “Squealing Pigs,‰” I was sold. However, we‰’re going to look at their second single “Subbuteo—‰Ûnotable not only for its different tone from “Squealing Pigs,‰” but also being the track that gives the album—Boots Met My Faceå_å_—its title.

The track opens with lead singer Louis Abbott‰’s distinct Scottish brogue accompanied by his acoustic guitar and some bass hits that simulate foot stomps. The lyrics address an old friend, and set the ever familiar tone of nostalgia that we are all too familiar with:

Hello my chum,
It‰’s me and I‰’m banging on your door
It‰’s been far too long
Since we set the leaves down on the floor

I‰’ve returned for a while
To the concrete that once claimed my knees
And the stones my hands owned
As I sent them towards windows and trees

But immediately when Abbott begins the third verse, it becomes clear that the memories he is referencing are not very positive. This becomes even clearer in the fourth verse. This is also likely because they used one of the lines from it for the album‰’s title, but that was an intentional choice—done with the intent of drawing attention to the negative nostalgia:

There are bangers in the wheely bins
Laser pens shown through the glass
And BB after BB fired
From beyond the wall beyond the glass

And though boots met my face,And knuckles cracked me black as coal
I care not for the mindless
That poked fea.r at my sorry soul

Abbott has confirmed that this song is about a time where he got beat up when he was 15, and the first few verses seem to directly correlate to this story. However, it is the final section of the song that strikes me the most, where Abbott seems to be reflecting on this memory and how it impacted him.

And I miss the rain on the roof
Pitstop path and whistling trees
I miss the cold stream chips
The red Subbuteo team painted green

Similar to the way they used the line that titled the album to draw the listener‰’s attention, there is a reason they titled this song “Subbuteo.‰” For the unaware (as I was the first time I heard the song), Subbuteo is a table top soccer/football game that is very popular with children in the UK. So in titling the song after the game, Abbott is also drawing attention to the nostalgic nature of the song‰’s subject matter, but the way the game is used in the song is quite interesting. In saying the “red…team is painted green,‰” the verse immediately after detailing how he was beat up as a child, Abbott is using the game pieces as a metaphor his life. While he was bloodied and beaten, resembling a red Subbuteo team, he would “paint himself green,‰” and force himself to recover before his family was aware. Perhaps he just wanted to blend in. Either way, he did not want the attention that appearing beaten up caused him.

The song‰’s final verse seems to show the present-day impacts that this has had on Abbott as he shows is true attitudes towards life in general:

Sometimes I talk with the meter
Of a bingo caller‰’s east-end drawl
Who cares; we‰’re all just trying to float
When everything seems set to fall

So hard

This beating as left Abbott jaded and cynical. He is uncaring of how he sounds when he speaks and how he appears to the outside. This is a stark contrast to the attitude he showed earlier, when he felt the need to paint himself green to not draw attention ton himself. But forcing yourself to blend in is exhausting, and I genuinely don‰’t blame him for embracing the cynicism that he has.