It’s a riff that lights up a room like dopamine in the air-con. An airy, tumbling thing, indie rock’s very own ice-cream jingle that, come the end of the night, still sends every dancefloor, student bar and wedding disco into air-punching frenzies decades after its release. Then comes the song’s universal message of triumph over jealousy, heartbreak and adulterous adversity, chests clutched and lungs opened to the timeless roar of the heart’s first crack: “I just can’t look, it’s killing meeee”.
From Gen Z-ers betrayed by a Magaluf brethren to boomers lamenting their umpteenth divorce, every age group, five pints in, finds itself bawling along to the song’s universal message of triumph over jealousy, heartbreak and adulterous adversity. “Mr Brightside” – the longest-charting song of all time in the UK, celebrating its 20th anniversary this week – has become far more than the definitive tune of Noughties indie. It’s now a pan-generational anthem, the 21st-century “Bohemian Rhapsody”. And it – almost – never got released at all.
