Somehow or other I seem to have had the rare fortune to have got through most of my life without very once encountering Hallelujah - knowingly at any rate. The first time I knowingly encountered it was on Nick Cave's No More Shall We Part back in 2001, where Kate & Anna McGarrigle take their part in the heady mix. As part of that particular confection it was by no mean remarkable but made a certain sense on the merits of context alone as a passable Nick Cave song. I might add that my acquaintance with the album was casual rather than obsessive, which is to say, I did not sit down & scrutinise the CD cover. Then, all of a sudden, it seemed to be everywhere - radio, folk clubs, TV documentaries, and I'm thinking - all this fuss over a Nick Cave song?

Now I know better, or worse; and truth to tell I wouldn't care if I never heard the bloody thing again.