Whoa, whoa, whoa. I haven’t written about The Rakes in a long, long time. One of my earliest posts for this series was for a song by the band. I give a brief bit of context on how I came to know the group in the two sentences that make up the second paragraph. And then I also give links to three other songs of theirs that I knew I would never be writing about. Had to leave you good readers waiting with a suspense lasting 12-and-a-bit years. But the moment has come. And no better way to mark the arrival than with an album opener. ‘Strasbourg’ is the first song on the band’s 2005 debut album Capture/Release. I, however, came to know the track through different circumstances. If you had a peek at one of the tags below, you may have already figured those circumstances out. And if not, it was because of FIFA 06. The song was on the soundtrack.

‘Strasbourg’ is a fiery, punky number, suitable to get any album off to an energetic start. First you hear some feedback, then the guitar gets going. The drums join in, followed by the bass. And then singer Alan Donohoe enters the frame after this calculated layer-by-layer introduction of instruments. The track details the trials and tribulations of a couple trying to flee 1980s Germany, when the Berlin Wall was still up and all of that business, for the French city of Strasbourg which is located pretty much on the border. I think the main highlight of the track is how it suddenly switches up a gear r two in energy and vigour during the choruses, in which Donohoe wails out “We’ll meet in Strasbourg” alongside backing vocals from guitarist Matthew Swinnerton. It’s like hell breaks loose for those moments before sanity’s regained for the more “conservative” verses. Great dynamic going on there.

And yeah, this track is another one of those sprinkled throughout this ongoing list that I was introduced to and grew accustomed to because of its inclusion on a video game’s playlist. Specifically one by EA Sports. ‘Strasbourg’ wasn’t the first song by The Rakes I’d ever heard. By the time of FIFA 06’s release, I’m sure I would have seen the music video for ’22 Grand Job’ on MTV2 multiple times. That’s one that’ll get its own post one day. So I definitely knew who The Rakes were. Just so happened that someone in the EA headquarters caught wind of the band and thought they were cool enough to add to the game. I do remember 10-year-old me attempting to sing along to this tune many a time. And I think I got nearly all the lyrics down, even the German ones. But again, like a lot of songs on FIFA, the track had gone through the censorship wringer. Alcohol references and obvious curses were either muted or replaced with cut-out phrases from other parts of the song, and the ending comes to an even more awkward sudden end than it does already on the album. This ‘clean’ version is below.