Tim: Emma Still, previously of various bands that never lasted long, is now branching out solo, and this song ‘brings a ray of sunshine this summer’, or at least that’s what her PR would have us believe – apparently, ‘with French lyrics the charm of Emma’s voice certainly shines through’. Shall we find out?
Tom: Well, that’s lovely, isn’t it? Although a bit disparate — that intro promised many things, and then the verse and chorus just decided to go into a completely different direction.
Tim: Now, my description here may sound like an insult, but it’s really not: that chorus sounds like the outro of a Lighthouse Family song. Not any one in particular, but just the sort they’d do.
Tom: That… yes, you’re right, that might sound like an insult. But then, the Lighthouse Family sold a whole lot of records.
Tim: Yes, but the main reason it’s not an insult is that, for a song called Sunny Day, that’s exactly what should be achieved – largely calming music, a whole load of people joining in, and a general vibe of happiness. And much as I don’t typically like repeating PR guff uncritically, here it’s not wrong about the lyrics – they do show off a good voice, and on top of that it makes it sound a bit more summery.
Tom: It did seem to outstay its welcome a bit, at least for me: it suffers from the problem that, if you just tell the YouTube player to go at 1.25x speed, it’s suddenly a much, much better song. This would be a good, pacey, three-minute track if someone would just kick the BPM up a bit — or at least remove maybe one chorus repeat.
Tim: Agh, see now you’ve pointed that out, and I’ve played it like that, I see that. On the other hand, you do lose a bit of the relaxation with it, so I’ll take it as it is. Though I’m not even going to try to figure out the video.
Tom: It’s art. French art.
Tim: Ah, that makes sense then.