Yes, written by Nick Lowe. Great song, fantastic performance -- in sum a classic gem, and as I suggested above one of those depressing songs that's nonetheless capable of making you feel good when you hear it -- but "optimistic"? Hey, there are some (what I consider to be) off-the-mark picks in this thread, in different ways, but to me this one -- a lucid and searingly angry indictment of the world we've made and our attitudes about it, that offers no hope of change even as it acknowledges and sympathizes with our potential to see the problems -- represents the absolute antithesis of optimism. Not that there's anything wrong with that :-)
