The Jules Rimet trophy was the original World Cup, named after the FIFA President who established the tournament. England won it in 1966. When Brazil won the World Cup for the third time in 1970, they were awarded the Jules Rimet permanently and a new trophy was commissioned.

This line is therefore a bit of an anachronism. Not only was the World Cup trophy no longer the Jules Rimet, but England weren’t even competing in the World Cup. It was the European Championships.

By 1996, England had failed to win the last 14 major championships, and had failed to even qualify for the 1994 World Cup. They were perennial underachievers, assembling good sides but consistently failing to reach their potential, and frequently losing on penalties. For every optimist like Skinner and Baddiel, someone else (like Hansen, Brooking, and Hill, sampled in the introduction) would think they didn’t stand a chance.

This makes the song much more endearing. It isn’t blindly patriotic, it doesn’t paint a picture of an England side entitled to win, but instead of plucky underdogs capable of triumphing against expectations.

Football was first codified in England in 1863. The official slogan for Euro 96, the first European Championship to be held in England, was “football comes home”.

England won the only previous championship that they’d hosted, the 1966 World Cup. Combined with the ability of players like Paul Gasgoigne and Alan Shearer and a strong performance in the 1990 World Cup, there was genuine optimism among many fans that England would win. Not only would football be coming home, but so would the trophy.

Talbot blames his mother’s death on NHS cuts. The album is dedicated to her and she appears on the cover.

Between 2010 and the release of Brutalism, the Conservative-led governments consistently increased the NHS budget by less than was needed — effectively reducing the amount of treatment available.

This line also contains a play on words. The right are born “barren-hearted” — meaning uncaring — and “baron-hearted” — driven by profit.

While it would be quite easy to maintain a flattop in arid Arizona, Britain is an island, and therefore much wetter than landlocked desert states. It’s very hard to stop your hair from flopping down when it gets wet.

In the US, “New Wave” was an umbrella term for lots of different sorts of 80s music, from punk to synth-pop. Flattops weren’t particularly associated with the scene, which had a fashion sense that Complex described as “a hot mess”.

James' use of “New Wave” would immediately have marked him out to his classmates. As Theo Cateforis details in Are We Not New Wave?, British music fans closely associated the term with punk, and would use other terms for other sub-genres.

“Youth is wasted on the young” is a common saying. Young people have working bodies and a lack of responsibilities, allowing them to enjoy themselves, but often fail to make the most of the opportunities that offers. The elderly, with the wisdom that allows them to understand the importance of seizing the day, are unable to do so.

As his father was in the USAF, James frequently moved during his childhood. Moving from Germany to Albuquerque aged 12 was particularly traumatic for him, forcing him to grow up fast.

I had terrible anxiety. It seemed to be the stress of dealing with this new world. The change was so dramatic; I was a kid in a kid’s world in Germany, and then I went to the States where I was a little white boy among kids who had moustaches. I went from being a happy, normal kid to having to talk to counsellors. It was severe, it lasted a long time, and I wanted to die.

Although raised a Roman Catholic, Mercer is an atheist, possibly explaining why he blames “the big math” rather than “the big man” (God) for wasting his youth.