Leavening tracks from the latest band du jour from Montreal with golden oldies from Bowie, Mozzer, et. al, Tom Dunne’s evening show on Today FM, Pet Sounds, offers thirtysomethings who have long fled the Somme-like fields of our summer music festivals a painfree way of keeping up with “the kids.” Last night the show played “Illegal Attacks,” the new single from the former frontman of The Stone Roses, Ian Brown.

Dunne described the track as “political,” and I suppose it is, in the same way a daubing by a three year old can be called a painting. On the level of popular music it throws a punch, with Brown’s er, unique Manucian rambling underscored by a militant, almost righteous beat. Filigreed by strings, Sinead O’Connor’s contribution adds an ethereal element–her trademarked Earth-Mother voice could sing the AA Roadwatch update and still make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. But as for “politics” it’s cartoonish, yoking together Afghanistan and Iraq and dragging in oil, Nasdaq, Palestine, the Taleban, air war–all overseen by (yawn) the Great Satan, the US of A.

And isn’t a bit rich hearing a sermon from the simian Mr. Brown about the evils of “illegal attacks”? This, remember, is the same guy who was jailed in the late 1990s from threatening to cut off an air stewardess’s hands. And on the evidence of this footage, anyone who attacks his security personnel is not only a thug but doesn’t exactly deserve to rub shoulders with Noam Chomsky.