I figure that even if you've never met me, or read more than half a dozen things I've written you're probably already had enough of my Jimmy Buffett fandom - so I want to start Musical Monday with the second most important musical artist in my life - the wonderful Kirsty MacColl.

As time progresses I'll be writing much more about Kirsty, her music, her tragic death, my pilgrimage to Soho Square and more - but I wanted to start... well, at the very start. And that's with the first song I can recall ever hearing of Kirsty's - Innocence, from her album Kite.

Okay, that's not quite true. It wouldn't be until quite a bit later that I found out she had written They Don't Know which Tracey Ullman took to number two in the charts. And I'm almost certain I had heard New England but didn't make the connection until much later.

But I do remember making a trip to Elgin library in 1989 when I was 15, which is where I found an album of hers for the first time. Remember this was before the internet so finding new music wasn't as simple as looking up related artists on Spotify. If you were like me you listened to some chart music and whatever was played on the stereo at home - and Kirsty didn't feature in either of those.

It was in Fochabers, my tiny home town in the North East of Scotland, where I first fell in love with libraries. The local library was run by Mary and Vicky and every time I went in I felt like I was the most important person there. I got extra books, they always had recommendations for me, they never fined me - and often they kept back a book they knew I'd like. As time progressed I graduated to being able to remove the tapes I wanted to borrow from the music library from the giant, complicated tape monster in the middle of the main room.

But the library was small and, as much as I hated to, I started to cheat on Mary and Vicky by taking a bus into Elgin instead to check out the much more impressive library. And that's where I found a music collection much bigger than I could have imagined.

I can't recall how much it was to borrow a tape - I'm guessing 20 or 30p, but I took full advantage. And one of those, picked at semi-random, was Kite. With a few exceptions, my preference is for female vocalists - it started with a crush on Debbie Gibson and continues today with Marketa Irglova, Bjork, Nellie McKay, Joanna Newsom and more. And that's how I happened to choose Kirsty's tape - there was a picture of her on the cover and her name sounded familiar and a little bit Scottish-y or Irish-y. That was enough for me. And this was the first song I heard:

It's a great song and gives a fantastic insight into Kirsty MacColl as a writer and a singer. There are high-pitched melodies, a sense of humour and a withering take on some aspect of life - all of which appear many times in her music.

That first chorus is a thing of beauty:

Oh innocence has passed you by
A long long time ago
I was the fly upon your wall
And I saw what you know
Your pornographic priestess left you for another guy
You frighten little children and you’ll always wonder why
Always wonder why

I mean 'pornographic priestess'? Kirsty's way with words never fail to conjure an image in my mind and by the time finishes I've got a strong idea of just who this person is, this man who seems to have taken one liberty two many with our warbling heroine.

The rest of the album was medicine for my soul. Her acerbic, almost misanthropic at times, glorious lyrics still make me want to cheer, laugh and cry every time I listen to them today. And Kite isn't even her best album. In fact I'd put it in fourth place behind Electric Landlady, Titanic Days and Tropical Brainstorm.

But that will have to wait for another day. Search for Kite on your streaming music source of choice, or even better pick up a copy of her album from your favourite second hand music store and envelope yourself in the brilliance.

Whether it's the country homage of Don't Come The Cowboy With Me Sonny Jim!, the excellent cover of The Kinks' Days or the haunting but beautiful Mother's Ruin you'll find something that resonates, a lyric that nags you to think more about it, a feeling of life that feels more real than any other singer I can name. And weep for a life lost way too early and a songwriter of undoubted genius unable to gift her music to us any more.