Mimi Oh – Skvaller

“Standard Chord Progressions”

Tim: The lyrics to this are in foreign —

Tom: Swedish, technically.

Tim: — but we’re told that they’re “about how we humans love to gossip but still have a very hard time delivering it to the person in context,” so feel free to bear that in mind. (Oh, and ‘Skvaller’ = ‘gossip’.)

Tom: I’m not sure what I think of this. The verses are a bit dull, and as for the rest…

Tim: I think that, by far and away, the choruses are the high point of this. They’re big and loud, with a sense of “we’re talking, I don’t care who knows it”, so I suppose in gossip terms that’s a bit dull because it’s either plainly true or they’ll say “no it isn’t” and then it’s all over.

Tom: There are Standard Chord Progressions in those choruses, which means that they seem comforting and familiar — but there’s nothing more than that to back them up. I’m just not sold on this.

Tim: The verses have a subversive quality to them, which I suppose translates more to stuff that gets passed around but never directly addressed. I’ll be honest, I don’t really know where I’m going with this, and I think it’s a good example of why every song should have lyrics published online so I don’t end up overanalysing and spouting all sorts of bollocks like this. Back to the beginning, and: music good, especially the chorus which is fun, and the song’s great. End of.

Tom: Mm. Not so much “end of” as “sputtering out in a half-arsed fashion” if you ask me.

Tim: DISAGREE. But fine.