A really really great pop song by dint of the fact it just refuses any categorisation other than 'Ace'. But I'd better give it a go. 'Mother' is a very nineties mix of genres; Gospel-ey piano, driving pop beat, terrible vocals, and great pop lyrics that soars, taking in scat, madchester, falsetto and more before exhausting itself - I can't think of any other song that could conceivably have worked as a blueprint for 90's pop - if we'd worked from this instead of 'Baby one more time' things could have been much different. Re. the song - two things then - 1. it's a fantastically catchy 'choon' with guts and attitude, 2. it's a bit revolutionary, as all good pop should be.

Probably the only anthemic pop song I will ever choose to listen to. Was drawn to it the first time I heard it, as a piece of chart music at the end of the 1990s.

The first two chords of the verse are audacious, most unusual in pop music, and are what makes the song for me. Without them, or with conventional choices, the song would lose its tension and power. The lyric can be considered cheesy, but it kind of aims high in searching out some kind of universal truth, and it works. When in the right mood, it is even elevating. The last part is lyrically very pathetic, a lame series of insulting name drops. But it probably got the record heard - this was their first single.

I recently read that this song was much admired by U2, and I'm not surprised as I can hear them striving for something like this. But they never get anywhere even slightly close.