If It Kills Me and It Will

The Harvest Ministers: "If It Kills Me and It Will" (Sarah Records)

Any other fortnight but this gem-laden one 'If It Kills Me...' would have stolen the best single accolade not least for the brave and successful use of those versatile and eminently enigmatic but sometimes treacherous lyrics "Ba da da ba ba da", which they avail of to punctuate the profound changes in tempo and subtle changes in mood of a song of delicate fragility which threatens any moment to collapse into unbridled cruelty and barely manages to mask a sensibility on the brink of desperation but which yet can harness enough steely reserve to deliver such an ultimatum as "Don't stand in my way/I'll only knock you down/And won't lend you a hand/To help you get back up." Clerics with a mission who are about to reap what they've sown.