Tim: I’ll be honest upfront: there are so, so many things wrong with this; we’ll discuss them all in a bit, but to start with be aware we’ve a sizeable number of f-bombs (Swedish, but it’s not exactly the most challenging translation), right from the off.
Tom: Oh, there’s a linguistics paper on code-switching and loan words to be had, there. That’s amazing.
Tim: The initial tone and lyric got me wanting to switch it off after less than ten seconds. The lyrics talk about ‘Netflix and chill’ and while I’m never normally one to get offended by bad language, the sheer intensity of it gets me thinking “alright love, calm down”.
Tom: I generally dislike songs that’ll date this badly — and let’s face it, parts of these lyrics have been pulled straight out of Tumblr about six months ago and are already placing this song somewhere in the middle of 2015.
But here’s the thing: I enjoyed the whole song.
Tim: Whuh?
Tom: I’ve previously said there aren’t enough songs in the genre of “this isn’t love, but you’re good in bed and that’ll do”. And come on, for that chorus, “you fuck up my lipstick, but not my mascara” is a bloody brilliant bit of lyric writing in any language. The video backs that up: this is not about pining for anyone, and I’m all in favour of that.
Tim: The video gets that point across, yes, but I still just find it plain unpleasant. And yet, and yet – that chorus almost makes up for it. Only almost, mind, because it would need to be a Queen Of My Heart-level chorus to make up for it fully, but it’s still a really nice chorus.
Tom: I’ll assume that’s in quality rather than style, because a sudden gear-shift into Westlife ballad would be odd here.
Tim: Well, obviously – though she can clearly sing when she wants to, so hopefully a slightly more pleasant follow-up isn’t too far off; as it is, though, for me it’s a terrible song, almost redeemed.