Tim: Anna has previously competed at Melodifestivalen as part of group EKO; now she’s heading solo, though, and here’s her debut, which I’m hoping will help out a bit with your mediocre-itis.
Tom: “Hello. It’s me. I was wondering if after all these years…”
Tim: Well, indeed – I don’t know when this was written, or recorded, but it strikes me as being a very Hello style song.
Tom: Agreed: if it had come out a few months later I’d claim it was a ripoff, but as it is it’s just an unfortunate coincidence.
Tim: Vocals in the verse quite modest and slow, with an instrumental underlay just about peeking its head up every now and again, giving way to a chorus that wants to get you sitting up to pay attention. Does it achieve that? For me, yes – there’s enough of a difference between the two that you can’t really fail to notice it.
Tom: I did actually perk up. It’s an odd, and Biblical, name to choose for a song like this — and the organ (synth?) and choir that pop up in the background understore that. In fact, it’s a bit strange to have a name here at all. It does sort of work, but it also sounds a bit like a rejected song from Jesus Christ Superstar.
Tim: Lyrically, perhaps, though to be honest I’m having a hard time identifying a good majority of them anyway with her vocal style. Musically with the chorus, though, there’s still very much the downbeat element, but it needs and wants to be heard above the verses, and it succeeds in a very good way.
Tom: Yep: it’s doing something different, and I can respect that.