Tim: Hampenberg, a producer, Jesper, the singer we last saw trying to represent Denmark at Eurovision. And my word, does this bounce around a bit.
Tom: That video’s a wonderful combination of high-budget studio work and low-budget graphics. All the scenes without video work are wonderfully produced… and then a stock NASA image steadily zooms in. How bizarre.
Tim: They’ve also chosen to bring old iPod adverts into the mix, which is nice because I liked those adverts.
Musically, we start off with a gentle piano ballad, quickly move into standard club beat-heavy mode, before settling into lovely Avicii/Swedish House Mafia style dance, whilst taking a brief (but apparently currently mandatory) break into the dubstep arena, and to be honest I’d be hard-pressed to criticise it. Everything just seems to work together and fit well, really, and the beginning of the first chorus, with the one note at a time piano behind it, is just fantastic.
Tom: The technical term there for that ‘one note at a time’ is ‘arpeggiated’. But yes, I can’t disagree with that: it builds properly, ends wonderfully, and is eminently danceable.
Tim: And regarding the dubstep: I’ve checked, and the first time we mentioned it was about eighteen months ago, when you described it quite simply as “awful”. A week later, I said I couldn’t stand it. But now, 26 mentions of it later? Well, used carefully, as it is here, it’s brilliant. The echoing voice and remnants of what came previously blend in well with the vwhomp vwhomp (will there ever be a proper way to spell that?) bits, and it just…works.
Tom: That’s because it’s gone pop. The old-school dubstep fanboys bemoan the commercialisation and sanitisation of the genre they love, and say it’s not “true dubstep” – but the fact remains that now it’s been cleaned up for the public at large, and now our ears have had a chance to get used to it… well, yes. It just works.
Tim: Though you still won’t find me shopping for Skrillex tracks.
Tom: You can get those at B&Q.