Tim: WELL THEN. “Electroswing”, apparently. Obviously EVERYBODY watched that massive, big budget ten minute interview tucked away on the BBC Red Button channel, but let’s remind ourselves of the UK’s Eurovision entry for 2015.
Tim: So here it is: I really really like it.
Tom: And so do I. I was expecting you to be in the majority of folks disliking it, and me having to defend it, but no: we both like it.
Tim: Unusual? Yes – standard song structure has gone so far out of the window, that there’s no actual chorus.
Tom: But there is a hook at least, and here’s the reason I think it works: I was humming it after only one listen.
Tim: And surprising in parts? Very much, because where the hell did at that scat stuff come from?
Tom: Agreed. That bit is shameful — out of place, bizarre, and closing with a horrible spoken interjection that grates badly.
Tim: BUT fun and catchy? Absolutely. (Those are, by the way, the three words from that “programme”, if it can be called that, that aren’t either boring, irrelevant or total bollocks. “Electroswing’s a really popular genre at the moment.” Sorry, love, but I have LITERALLY never heard that word before in my life.)
Tim: All of which I had forgotten, but fine: sorry, love, but I have LITERALLY only heard that word three times in my life. But enough with semantics.
I watched it on my phone on the way home from work (via the pub, but that’s not important), and my immediate reaction was: huh. Because while I’m not really sure what I was expecting, I sure as hell wasn’t expecting that, and yet (unlike just about every Eurovision fan I follow on Twitter) I really liked it.
Tom: Which could be good or bad: let’s not forget the French entry about a moustache last year: horrible on first listen, but popular among those who’d heard it a few times. Growers don’t work in Eurovision.
Tim: There are bad parts – the first visit to the Tron soundtrack grates somewhat, and, as previously mentioned, that bit where he goes all Scatman John is just aurally offensive.
Tom: And many of the lyrics are dreadful — but perhaps that matters less when most of the countries voting don’t have English as a first language.
Tim: Other than those bits, it’s by some distance our best entry since 2011, and I can count on one hand the number of entries in my lifetime that I’ve preferred.
Tom: It’s no Katrina and the Waves, but it’ll do.