Tim: You may have heard that Muse are doing the official Olympic song. If you have, and you’ve heard it, you will have come to the conclusion that it’s a total bloody racket.
Tom: See, I thought that the first time I heard it, but then on further listens it’s got a lot better. I mean, it’s Muse: if they can get away with Knights of Cydonia they can get away with this. Admittedly Matt Bellamy does sound more like the guy from Electric Six at times, and the lyrics are trite, but still.
Tim: Still, it’s a total bloody racket. This, on the other hand, would have been a lovely Olympics song, and not just because it has a podium on the cover of it.
Tom: There’s something about the word “win” and “winner”: use them in a song and it just seems patronising and a little awkward, like giving a “you tried” medal to every kid on school sports day.
Tim: Sometimes, perhaps, but here I just can’t agree with you. This is the first song in almost a year where I’ve bought a song and then listened to it over and over and over again on repeat, because it’s brilliant.
Tom: It keeps reminding me of Take That’s “Shine”, but I can’t quite put my finger on why. They’re just similar, happy songs, I guess.
Tim: Partly it’s the understatedness of it all – at the end of the song (with that delightful key change) it cranks it up a lot, but until then it could, technically, be described as a bit plodding, but here that is in no way a criticism, because what it does is focus the listener’s attention on the lyrics. It’s the same with the video – you don’t get dazzled by the bright colours or pretty fonts they’re using, because it’s just the words, and those words are wonderful.
Anyone who doesn’t get goosebumps from that chorus is clearly an emotional void.
Tom: Hello.
Tim: Yep, figures. But in fact anyone who doesn’t find this song at least very good is just plain wrong.
Tom: Yes, but that’s only due to that middle eight and last chorus. Those are so good that they raise the whole song’s average.
Tim: And push it from cloud-high levels to outer-atmosphere levels of excellency.