Eric Saade – Forgive Me

It’s a tad tedious, isn’t it?

Tim: Eric, it would appear, doesn’t seem to know what he wants to do, musically – a couple of years back he swore off the wonderfully pop sound of Manboy and the rest of the Masquerade album and headed all Jason Derulo-style (as previously remarked upon), but now, if this track off his next album is anything to go by, he’s done another about turn, and brought us this.

Tim: Problem with it, though: it’s a tad tedious, isn’t it?

Tom: That’s pretty much what I was going to say. If you’re going to turn in a new direction, make sure it’s better than the… one you were going in? That metaphor sort of fell apart for me. But yes. It’s overlong.

Tim: Yes – five minutes is quite something (though if you’re reading this at before having heard it all, literally nothing notable happens after 3:50, so feel free not to subject yourself to it). We don’t need a full minute of repeating chorus at the end, and really not when there’s nothing more to it than any previous choruses. It’s fine having a nice melody, which this does, but if I had control of this I’d say: ditch the second half of each chorus pair – in fact, pretty much chop everything in half.

Tom: Agreed. It’s twice the song it needs to be, and not in a good way.

Tim: I can’t be bothered to listen to the lyrics, but I’m willing to bet they’re not such brilliance that you can’t cut out half of them.

Tom: Damn, that’s harsh. Accurate, though.

Tim: It’d be a much more manageable song, and people probably wouldn’t notice that it’s so dull.

5Angels – World Domination

“I’m officially sounding the GET OFF MY LAWN klaxon.”

Tim: I don’t think we’ve yet visited the Czech Republic; shall we rectify that with a five-piece girlband?

Tom: Bloody hell. “Girl” band is right. Or am I just getting older?

Tim: No, you’re not – “cause you say we’re too young,” they sing, and ‘you’ may have a point as these five have barely entered their teens, although they’ve been going since 2009 and have got three albums out already.

Tom: In which case, I’m officially sounding the GET OFF MY LAWN klaxon.

Tim: Along with that, the PR guff we’ve got spouts stuff about their songs bringing ‘joy to children and teens throughout the Czech and Slovak Republic’, about their thousands of Czech and Slovakian fans being ‘comparable’ to One Direction’s fan base, and about a future appearance being alongside ‘pop royalty Jessie J and JLS’ in a Norfolk music festival at the beginning of September. Fun, no?

Tom: That’s a lot of PR guff right there. Mind you, we’ve seen much worse PR guff for much worse bands: they’re certainly competent.

Tim: They really are. To be honest, this strikes me as being a surprisingly mature sound for such young people – I don’t know if that sounds patronising, but I don’t have trouble imaging this being off, say, the Little Mix album, or Girls Aloud.

Tom: Apart from the fact they mention themselves. It’s been a while since I’ve made this complaint, but I do hate it when bands mention themselves in the song.

Tim: I’m not sure if they’ll ever achieve world domination, or any international success – a large part of me doubts it – but I’d not be complaining if they did. Although I wouldn’t mind a slightly more energetic return after the middle eight – a soaring vocal, an extra drumbeat or something. And maybe tone down the 2 & 4-beat handclap that permeates 90% of the song. But those niggles aside, this is fine.

Selina Stoane – One Sin Is Never Enough

“There is a lot of filler there.”

Tim: Debut single from a Norwegian, and if you get bored you can stop listening after four minutes and you won’t miss anything.

https://soundcloud.com/selinastoane/one-sin-is-never-enough

Tom: Hmm. I wasn’t sure I was going to last four minutes.

Tim: In fact, much as I liked it on my first listen, there is a lot of filler there – the ‘Selina’ middle eight is twice as long as the ‘eight’ demands that it should be, and four times as long as I’d like it to be.

Tom: Yep. And who has a middle-eight that is just their own name, repeated?

Tim: I almost introduced this with the line “Tom, there’s part of this you’ll hate.” I’m glad I didn’t, but I’m also glad to know I was right.

But then the final choruses come back, and then, well, they don’t really do much either, and once we get back to repeating her name I’m really rather losing interest. Trim it down a bit, though, and this would be great – the lyrics are perfectly true, her voice is good, and the music underneath is pleasingly poppy.

Tom: True, but if it’s outstaying itself welcome at four minutes, that isn’t a good sign.

Tim: Just…yeah, trim it a bit.

Saturday Flashback: Mika – Popular Song

“I CANNOT GET THIS OUT OF MY HEAD.”

Tom: His third album did… OK, I guess? Number 1 in France, but only number 24 on the UK charts. And partly this is due to it being a calmer, more stripped-down Mika, with less of the flamboyance that everyone remember from, well, that one big song he had.

It was with a bit of surprise that I stumbled across this single, released earlier this year. And here’s the odd thing: it’s not off the album.

Tim: Okay…

Tom: So here’s the history: start with one or two lines from a song from the musical Wicked. Write a whole new track around it; then sing the choruses and mostly-speak the verses with the woman who wrote Little Mix’s “DNA”, among many others.

The trouble is, that track isn’t really a big radio winner. It’s not bad, but it ain’t going to get airplay. The solution: throw out the songwriter, get a Nickelodeon pop starlet to sing with you instead, and go back to first-album Mika syrupy-sweetness.

Tim: Ooh, and speed it up a bit. That helps a lot. And your thoughts on this version?

Tom: I CANNOT GET THIS OUT OF MY HEAD.

Tim: Ah.

Tom: It’s a brilliant pop song. The return for that final chorus is just glorious.

Tim: It really is – it could come straight off the first album, with the happy pop attitude that was so prominent. (And back then in general, now I think about it, with Alphabeat around as well. Why isn’t pop so happy any more?)

Tom: So the question is: this could clearly sell a heck of a lot more records that Mika’s recent, less poppy style. I wonder how much of a battle is going on behind the scenes between the man making the music and the suits selling singles?

Tim: Ah, artistic integrity. Awful stuff. Just, make the tracks that sell, and that people like, and be done with it.

Fall Out Boy – Alone Together

They’re nailing it.

Tom: Comeback album after a “hiatus”. Third single. Pretentious concept video. To repeat some shtick from yesterday: it’ll be awful, right?

Tom: NO. It’s a great song. Whatever genre they’re in now — alt-rock? emo? Who knows — they’re nailing it.

Tim: They really are, its great. Strange how there are some bands that I like even though if they were just a tiny little bit elsewhere musically I’d hate. My Chemical Romance is the same – emo-rock that’s got just the right small degree of pop to it that makes it work really well for me.

Tom: The album’s been well received — it made it to number 1 on the US album chart. Given the troubles they’ve had in the past (do consult Wikipedia), I’d say this is one of the most triumphant comebacks of recent years.

Tim: High praise indeed, but you may not be far off.

Cascada – The World Is In My Hands

It’ll be awful, right?

Tim: This is the necessary single release that accompanies any new Greatest Hits compilation; it’ll be awful, right?

Tim: NO. It’s actually really really good, and that’s not something I thought I’d ever be able to write about a new Cascada track. Recently, the output’s sounded like the energy’s drained somewhat from the first couple of albums, and she’s really just jumping on whatever everyone else is doing.

Tom: Particularly after Eurovision, where her song sounded like it was the previous year’s winner changed just enough to avoid lawsuits.

Tim: But this – this is back on top. It’s no Eurovision clone, it’s not a track with an idiotic title (why would you want a crowd to evacuate?). Instead, it’s original, it’s her own sound, and best of all it sounds like proper effort was put into it. I’m very, very happy with this.

Tom: I wonder how it would have done at Eurovision?

Tim: Probably quite a bit better. Eh, well. Too late for them now.

Pet Shop Boys – Love Is A Bourgeois Construct

Oh my word.

Tim: The third single, and second best track, from their latest album, with one of the most pretentious titles a song has ever had.

Tom: That is an astounding title. And bloody hell – is that a “6” I see in the “minutes” on the video?

Tim: Oh yes – strap yourself in.

Tom: Oh my word, that opening. That first minute. And then… oh wow. This is classic Pet Shop Boys. It’s amazing. And as I write this, I’m only three minutes into it.

Tim: What I like about this is the way it goes pretty much everywhere, with long, slow introduction than standard synth pop in the way that they do it, heavy beats later on through the chorus, and a breakdown near the end that sticks way out from the rest of the song.

It never really settles down into one thing in particular – even when you think the heavy chanting at the end is a fabulous way to end it, it suddenly goes all dreamy and elsewhere.

Tom: I do wonder if that’s there deliberately to make it “loop” in folks’ heads. After that outro, I want the main hook to come back… and so I hit play again.

Tim: Wonderful consequence of that: even at nearly seven minutes, the song doesn’t sound like its going on too long.

Tom: In a song like this, there are always going to be sections that don’t seem to work as well — and for me, they’re generally the bits where it deviates from “normality”. That glitchy middle eight seems wrong to me — but then, it does make that final chorus just glorious.

Tim: It also helps that the hook is fantastic. It seems really familiar – I don’t know if I’ve heard it before elsewhere or if I’ve just been listening to this a stupid number of times, but either way I like it.

Tom: You’ve almost certainly heard it before, although never quite in this form.

Tim: Ah, there it is.

Tom: Also, I have to mention the ludicrously pretentious lyrics. I’m not sure what else you could put there, though; somehow, I think generic lyrics about love would be worse. The fact the song works as an instrumental, though, is a testament to its strength.

Tim: Fans will be pleased to know that it’s been put right at the top of the Radio 2 playlist – quite how they’ll chop it down into a sensible-length radio edit I have no idea – so it’ll hopefully get quite a bit more attention than their other recent ones have, because it really deserves to.

Lady Gaga – Applause

“Oh. How very… 2000s.”

Tim: POP MUSIC EMERGENCY, declared Gaga yesterday evening, as it became apparent that leaking seven seconds of her new song at a time wasn’t enough to stop people talking about someone else’s track. So out of nowhere, one of the biggest pop stars around yesterday decided to properly launch the much-awaited first single from her new album; here it is.

Tom: Oh. How very… 2000s.

Tim: Was pretty much my first thought. It at least doesn’t waste time not going anywhere, that’s for sure, though to be honest I’m not sure that works in its favour – for me, it never seems to be quite as big and massive as it probably could be.

Tom: It does seem to be a day for diva disappointment, doesn’t it?

Tim: For you, certainly. And for me, possibly. The crowd noise at the end is very welcome, but when your whole song’s about living for applause you want it to be properly massive throughout, no?

Tom: The first single off a new album needs to a Born This Way, an Edge of Glory, a Yoü and I. This is… none of those.

Tim: It really isn’t. It’s not bad, of course – not by any means at all, but I can’t help being somewhat disappointed. It would admittedly have taken a hell of a lot to beat some of the tracks from Born This Way or The Fame Monster. On the other hand, maybe it’s stylistic – this sounds like a track for her first album, as you implied up at the top, and I never enjoyed that quite as much as the next two.

Tom: I’ve liked most of her songs, but this is very much an “album track” as far as I can tell.

Tim: If I’m honest, then, I don’t I like it as much as I do Katy Perry’s. Sorry, but then perhaps you shouldn’t have insulted music bloggers. (Not bitter at all, by the way.)

Tom: Speak for yourself: I’ll keep listening to the Pet Shop Boys’ new single. We’ll get to that in a day or two.

Tim: Tomorrow, perhaps, and if you’re wondering about the world’s schedule for the rest of the week, I’m reliably informed it involves new tracks from Britney and Adele, and then a new Rihanna album on Friday. YOU’RE WELCOME.

Katy Perry – Roar

“What the hell is that breakfast, anyway? Muesli, yoghurt and bacon?”

Tim: One of the biggest pop stars around yesterday decided to properly launch the much-awaited first single from her new album..

Tom: Ooh, Lady Gaga?

Tim: Now now, don’t get ahead of yourself – here it is.

Tim: An interesting take on a lyric video; you may recognise it as it has been done before, but not by anybody anywhere near as famous. One problem with it, though – the implication is that that phone’s battery will have a good 50% left by the evening. NOT A CHANCE LOVE.

Tom: I actually found the video really distracting: trying to decipher all the not-quite-emoji put me off the song entirely. So by the time it got to breakfast I’d switched to another tab.

And what the hell is that breakfast, anyway? Muesli, yoghurt and bacon?

Tim: Good grief, I’d not seen that – how very very odd. The tune itself, though? Rather good indeed, I’m pleased to say. Takes a while for the first verse to get anywhere, but once the chorus hits it really is wonderful.

Tom: Ooh, now that’s where I disagree. I don’t think there’s that much to it at all. The “hear me roar” is the message, but it’s not backed up by much at all.

Tim: You really think? The verses I agree with, but the chorus sends it to power-pop, catchy, inspiring banger mode. If we’re honest, this would also fit a key change perfectly, but there isn’t one so oh well. We’ll just have to make do with what we’ve got, but since what we’ve got is quite good anyway that’s not such a problem.

Tom: A key change would help, but really? This has gone as far as it’s ever going to go by about 60 seconds in.

Tim: Hmm. Here, it seems, we differ. Also, bonus fact: Harry Styles claims to have a phobia of the Marimba ringtone that is heard at the beginning of this video. No idea why.

Tom: I was worried that the whole track would be based around that ringtone. Someone’ll do it, sooner or later.

Metro Station – Every Time I Touch You (E.T.I.T.Y.)

Electropop at it’s poppiest, and it’s great.

Tim: You may or may not recall this band’s hit from 2008, Shake It, which was really rather successful. It was followed by a very listenable album, and then a somewhat hostile break-up.

One of them (the oddly named Mason Musso) has decided to start making music again, and has seen no reason why he shouldn’t keep the band’s name going, so here we are.

Tom: Which will no doubt cause some disputes down the line, but never mind. Also: why the abbreviation? Because I’m just pronouncing it as “E-titty”. I… I don’t know what that would be.

Tom: Bloody hell. That’s an astonishing video.

Tim: Isn’t it just?

Tom: I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything on YouTube quite as intense, as startling, as fast as that — particularly not with as much artistic merit behind it either. Absolutely amazing. And as for the song…

Tim: This is electropop at it’s poppiest, and it’s great. Don’t really know what to say beyond that, because it just pushes all my buttons almost perfectly. The two-step pre-chorus is a tad unsettling when it first strikes, but once you know it’s there it becomes alright and blends in fairly well.

Tom: I can only agree. This is brilliant electropop.

Tim: I like this a lot, I really do, and I hope he doesn’t fall apart with himself this this time.