Saturday Flashback – Page 21

Saturday Flashback: Litesound – We Are The Heroes

Mediocrity, but I really like it.

Tim: Last Saturday, a track from Eurovision 2012 that didn’t do anywhere near as well as it should have done. This week, a track that was my third favourite that year but didn’t even qualify to the final. I present to you: Belarus.

Tim: Yes, it’s basically a Nickelback track popped up slightly, and I suppose hits roughly the right level of mediocrity to garner nowhere near enough votes, but I really like it, and I do wish it had done better.

Tom: Oh my word, you’re right. He’s even got some of the same vocal inflections, where he doesn’t quite get the right note to start, and then rolls his voice towards the right pitch.

Tim: They didn’t wear the best outfits on the night – mostly chain mail, which hasn’t really worked as a fashion choice for at least half a millennium – but that shouldn’t be a reason for them to be knocked out, surely? Oh well, Europe’s loss.

Tom: It is generic, it is a bit Nickelback, but it’s not inherently a bad track. It is, as you say, just a bit generic.

Tim: I like the literalness of the video with them being actual heroes, and I particularly like the woman who’s just pulling at her seatbelt wondering why it won’t fall apart. Clearly an overconfident flyer who didn’t pay attention to the flight crew’s instructions. Also the explosion that hits with the second chorus is wonderful, and almost as good timing as another Belarus music video, from three years back.

Tom: Full marks for them not being superheroes. Not so full marks for endangering wildlife.

Tim: Okay, I know that’s a serious article, and I read that Pat Stanley is from Leicestershire, but I can’t help but read “next year I’m going to have dead cows” in a Somerset accent, and now I’m giggling stupidly. SORRY PAT.

Saturday Flashback: Kurt Calleja – This Is The Night

One track comes on and you suddenly realise that everything’s brilliant.

Tim: Tom’s away at the moment, unfortunately, so it’s just me, but hopefully I can cope. You know how sometimes you’re out for an evening, and it seems a bit iffy, but then one track comes on and you suddenly realise that everything’s brilliant?

Tim: Well, I didn’t really mention it, but I went to see the truly wonderful Hera Björk performing in a club last Friday, and I never had that feeling at all, because this Eurovision track was playing as I walked through the door and I instantly had confirmation of what I’d already suspected: the night was going to be utterly fantastic. And it really, really was.

Sadly, that night in Baku wasn’t really The Night for Kurt, as this only came 21st out of 25, but as for last Friday – that really was the night. Hera is ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT.

Saturday Flashback: Bjørn Olav Edvardsen & Arcteec – Mountains

“Hello, dance-flavoured ballad.”

Tim: What would you say to a dance-flavoured ballad?

Tom: “Hello, dance-flavoured ballad”?

Tim: Because that is what Norwegian Idol graduate Bjørn and dance person Arcteec joined forces to bring us back in March. (And you’ll want to skip to 1:40 in the video – all that happens before then is him walking to a train station in black and white.)

Tim: Right then. I’m not sure if part of this is the wonderful scenery in the video, but I think this track is just lovely.

Tom: See, I tend to be a sucker for Americana: Googie architecture and desert road trips in a video will mean I’ll feel much better about it. You’re right that rhe scenery here is gorgeous, though; it gave me a serious case of wanderlust although I’m not sure it affected my opinion of the music.

Tim: I’m a little unnerved by the structure of it, with it ending after the second chorus without a single thought for the surely requisite middle eight and closing chorus.

Tom: I’m increasingly of the opinion that, unless you’re chucking out a Proper Pop or Proper Schlager song, composers should be able to play about with the structure if it works for them. It didn’t put me off.

Tim: No, it didn’t put me off – it was more of a ‘wait, why has this finished?’ disconcertment.

The 2-step backing of it means it wouldn’t be the easiest to dance to, but as a song to listen to it’s very enjoyable indeed. The earnest high pitched vocal goes nicely with the ever-present but not too intrusive backing track – it’s almost unusual to have a dance track that isn’t constantly screaming for attention, and it make a nice change, I reckon.

I’m bringing it up now because Oslo Pride happened recently and the SX Summer Radio Remix got put out as the official song, and it’s…well, it’s alright.

Tom: That’s… that’s just the same track with a THUMPING BASS, surely?

Tim: Pretty much: they’ve stuck a big four to the floor beat on it to make it club friendly and played around with the chorus backing a bit, but it doesn’t really work for me – the drawn out vocals of the chorus just don’t mesh with a regular dance beat, which is a shame. I don’t know what they could have done with it to make it work given that restriction, so maybe they should have left it as it was; it’s not like they destroyed the original, though, so let’s push play again, shall we?

Saturday Flashback: One Direction – Forever Young

Exactly like you think it’s going to sound.

Tim: Remember how on Wednesday we mentioned Leona Lewis’s version of Burn getting leaked, and I said that that’s something that often happens? Well, this was recorded back in December 2010, and would have been released had they not lost out to Matt Cardle.

Before you listen to it, know this: it sounds exactly like you think it’s going to sound.

Tom: Crikey, it does as well. That’s utterly, entirely predictable. Which, I suppose, is kind of the point. I might have been surprised by the key change, if it wasn’t for the rising strings that telegraphed it coming.

Tim: This is… ludicrous. Forever Young can justifiably be described as one of the best-known tracks of pretty much ever. Wikipedia lists it as being used in six TV shows, several films and a multitude of advert campaigns, and even if the young folk have never heard the original they’ve almost certainly heard that nonsense that Jay-Z made of it, or the cover that went huge thanks to The O.C., or possibly the German rap version.

Tom: Although probably not the German rap version.

Tim: I don’t know, maybe. But now…well, you know that thing where you type the beginning of a question into Google and get the LOLs from the suggestions? Type “forever young” into the YouTube search box, and take a look. Go on, I dare you.

Tom: Ouch. I got One Direction as the third option — and before Alphaville, who originally sang it.

Tim: Indeed. And you know what the worst thing is? The worst thing about the fact that this fairly limp cover version by a now-getting-somewhat-annoying boyband has become the second most searched for version of a once great song?

Tom: That it’s a pretty good track?

Tim: Bang on. I actually really like this, with the just good enough harmonies, the overblown strings, the key change and the 2 and 4 beat claps at the end. It’s fantastic. Syco may be one of the most ruinous music labels out there, but damn, they can come up with the goods.

Saturday Flashback: Michael Bublé – It’s A Beautiful Day

“The best cheery breakup song since Cee-Lo.”

Tom: I know what you’re thinking. Bublé? Have I gone mad? Well, not really – because this isn’t him crooning some old track. It’s a very good bit of pop music with a big-band sound to it. And better than that: it’s the best cheery breakup song since Cee-Lo.

Tom: Isn’t that wonderful?

Tim: Haha, oh, it certainly is that.

Tom: A brass section that seems to be hopped up on caffeine, a traditional bassline — by which I mean, something played on a bass guitar — thumping along below it, and a major-key happy melody line about a breakup.

Tim: It’s great! It’s almost impossible not to smile when watching that. He’s just so jaunty, it’s almost infectious.

Tom: Plus, a lyric video that includes video footage! And it’s really well animated!

Tim: A nice change from what we’re used to, though I’d expect nothing less.

Tom: But the best version of this? It’s the version with Ant and Dec, Lewis Hamilton, a golf cart, a pub, a walk through a scenery dock, and so many little attention-to-detail in-jokes.

Saturday Flashback: The Blam – Various Disgraces

Dammit, it’s just a good party track.

Tim: I’ve recently been gradually watching my way through all nine years of The Office —

Tom: Crikey. That’s a lot of cringe-humour: I can’t take more than an episode of it, generally.

Tim: — and in one episode there was a sort of party room set up where the employees to go to dance when they got stressed. This was one of the tracks that was played, and it’s really quite good.

Tim: It’s not a very nice track, lyrically – “you wear me out, there’s nothing I can do” – but play this loud and dammit, it’s just a good party track.

Tom: It is, and I’m surprised I haven’t heard it before. I thought it sounded about a decade old, and was rather glad a bit of research discovered that I was more or less exactly right.

Tim: You were indeed. The sound just works, like so many pop/indie/rock/punk tracks did back in the mid-00s. Stick this on a playlist with Blink 182, New Found Glory, Bowling For Soup, Boys Like Girls and all the others, whack the speakers up, splurge a load of spirits into a bowl with a token litre of pineapple juice and you’ve got yourself the recipe for a great house party.

Tom: Or a terrible one.

Tim: Ah, the wonderful Mongrels. A song for every occasion.

Saturday Flashback: Bingo Players feat. Far East Movement – Get Up

“He should’ve ducked.”

Tom: Sometimes, Tim, I send you flashbacks for the music, or for the nostalgia value. Not this time. Today, I’m sending you this flashback just for the video. Heads up: it contains a bit bloody, if comic, violence.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veM5tszB_KQ

Tim: Oh, well that’s the best example of animal justice we’ve had since Save The World. Full marks.

Tom: That last guy, with the hole in his chest? He should’ve ducked.

Tim: Get out.

Saturday Flashback: Owl City – When Can I See You Again

“I loved it on first listen.”

Tom: I’ve been lukewarm on Owl City in the past; his tracks can seem a bit like they’re written for young kids, and they frequently leave me… well, a bit cold. Not this one. I loved it on first listen.

Tim: Even though it’s quite clearly written for young kids, given the film it’s from?

Tom: Well, that makes it more remarkable — given that it’s a movie credits song. Sure, there’ve been good credit songs in the past — but for every “Men in Black” there’s a “Black Suits Comin’ (Nod Ya Head)”. And if you don’t get that reference, try and keep it that way.

Tim: I don’t, and I shall. But I’ll also take this opportunity to recommend It’s Raining Sunshine for pure sugar overload. This is very good, though – I especially like the last line of the chorus.

Tom: And yes, you could just as easily level the usual criticisms of Owl City at this–

Tim: Well, given the film it’s from, you could certainly make your ‘made for kids’ argument again, although that’s never bothered me.

Tom: — but somehow it manages to transcend them. Listen to those string synths during the second part of the first verse: there’s a completely different counter-melody, with a different rhythm, running through this whole track and it works so, so well.

Tim: That’s very true, and I’d not immediately noticed that. It’s a nice theme, and a reminder that I’ve still not seen it – a situation I must change.

Saturday Flashback: Jedward – What’s Your Number

“They make decent pop.”

Tim: If I remember rightly, you were amazed last year when you heard Waterline and realised that it was good. So was I, a bit. But last weekend, for no particular reason other than curiosity, I listened to Jedward’s album from last year, and found that it’s actually quite good all round. Take this, for example.

Tom: For all the fuss about Jedward being irritating, I can’t deny that they’re good. We’ve discussed this before: put them in a studio, give them decent producers, and then just let them be themselves at the fans… well, they ain’t my kind of thing, but they make decent pop.

Tim: First off, I’m aware the lyrics aren’t the best – “Do you have a boyfriend, you look like you need one” may be the worst line ever imagined – but that aside this is actually great, and I love it.

Tom: I ain’t going that far, because once you parse the lyrics of this song as being sung loudly and drunkenly at someone who really just wants the singer to go the hell away it starts being a bit unpleasant.

Tim: That…that’s actually not a bad point. Erm. Dammit, yes. But still, if you don’t imagine the singee’s viewpoint to be that then it’s fine.

Tom: Plus, frankly, anything that includes DTMF dialling tones in the background seems just a bit too kitsch, and that seems to bleed into the rest of the track in a kind of mid-2000s Busted-but-worse way. But you’re right, it’s not bad.

Tim: It’s very good pop rock, written by people who know what they’re doing (that key change is sterling work) and, credit where it’s due, performed by people who have somehow got the right mix of popstar-ness and bellendry to make it work. WELL DONE TO THEM.

Saturday Flashback: Nica & Joe – Euphoria

Tim: Eurovision selection is already well underway, and we’ll probably start throwing around our annual choice of Saturday Rejects soon, but first off let’s have a listen to this intriguing cover of 2012’s winner.

Tom: Blimey. I did not expect most of an orchestra to appear there.

Tim: Interesting, isn’t it? Nica (not her real name) is Polish, Joe (his real name) is American, and together they came third in German X Factor 2011, and are competing to represent Germany in Malmö. They’ve got a couple of albums out (Spotify), largely consisting of operatic versions of popular tracks.

Tom: It’s always tricky doing something like this: if you don’t get the tone exactly right, you end up doing by accident what Max Raabe did deliberately. The only part of this that doesn’t really work, though, is the “up-up-up”; the stuttering would probably work better as one long, held note.

Tim: I don’t know, I think it works. Other highlights include an Il Divo-esque version of There You’ll Be and a rather rather fantastic cover of David Guetta’s Titanium, but I’ve chosen this one because (a) it’s the only one on YouTube, (b) it’s Eurovision and (c) I wish to express my disappointment that one of them didn’t sit back and let the other do this as a solo, because then we could have called it a Eupharia.

Tom: Oh. Oh, well done.