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?