Tim: Croatian boyband here for you who’ve been around for a few years now, recently joined by a Swede – a rapidly escalated school foreign exchange, I can only assume. Here’s this line-up’s debut, a festive one.
Tom: Huh. That’s surprisingly good. That “wish list” in the pre-chorus bit made me pay attention, and that chorus is just lovely, with just the right amount of bells to note it’s a Christmas song without overdoing it.
Tim: Typically, when songs write to Santa, they’re being hugely selfish, asking for love and thus eternal happiness, or incredibly selfless (and basically lying), wanting happiness for everyone else. This one sits decidedly in the middle of the two, being more or less “fly on, mate, nothing needed here”, and that’s both refreshing and somewhat believable, so first off well done to them for that.
Tom: And you know what? That sentimentality has actually broken through my bah-humbug armour, just a little bit. I’m probably just tired. And to be fair, it is just “All I Want For Christmas Is You”, directed at Santa instead.
Tim: As for the rest of it, I’d peg at the level of maybe second or third single from a typical boyband album, which is a perfectly decent way to carry on and say “yep, we’re still good”.
Tom: The end peters out a bit: I think there’s more you could do with that last chorus. But I might have actually gotten a little Christmassy there.
Tim: In that case: solid work.