Tim: Maja’s new off Sweden, and has this to start with, translating as “Always As You Want”, apparently.
Tim: First things first: I’m only slightly keen on this, because while most of it is good, that chorus really does put me off a tad, dropping the melody a bit too much and replacing it with, for my ears, a fairly unpleasant dance beat.
Tom: Yep. This has got a great pre-chorus but, for my money, not much else of note.
Tim: So instead let’s examine this as a debut, and if we leave those complaints aside it’s a decent and promising piece of pop. All the necessary bits are there – strong verses with a good vocal line, a chorus that’s doing exactly what it should be doing with a mix of vocal and a solid hefty beat and rhythm underneath.
Tom: Mm. It ticks all the technical boxes, but I still don’t actually like this track. I suspect that’s down to the composer: the melody just makes me switch off. The production’s good, though, you’re right.
Tim: And once you bring in the middle eight that strips everything back to really show off her voice, it’s a nice demonstration of everything she can do, and it works very well. Despite my own personal misgivings, for a song that wants to say “here I am, this is what I do”, there’s not a lot to criticise it for.