Tim: SuRie, off Eurovision and getting stage invaded last year, has brought us an album, Dozen, which was released a couple of days ago. Interesting concept: twelve tracks, each related to a month.
Tom: Huh. I mean, I’ve heard much worse ideas for concept albums. Let’s be honest, my expectations are pretty low: ‘Eurovision contestant’s follow-up album’ isn’t an easy sell.
Tim: Here’s the first one, and (advance warning) the club banger style has been entirely discarded.
Tom: She’s got a beautiful voice, and she knows how to use it well. Pity that the song sounds like it’s playing during the bleak interlude in the middle of a made-for-TV Christmas movie.
Tim: When she was on Eurovision: You Decide she sung a John Lewis version of Storm, and it almost seemed like that was how she’d rather have performed it all along, and this kind of reinforces that.
I don’t mind that too much, though, because it sounds nice enough and now at least she can do what she wants.
Tom: What a bizarre set of lyrics, though. It’s like someone wrote a prog-rock song and then decided to score it for strings and piano.
Tim: Sure, it may drag along a bit, and sure, if you’re not in the mood for a piano ballad this won’t do much for you; on the other hand, though, when the time comes for her to raise her voice and get enthusiastic, she’s more than capable of that. So fair play to her – unlike most of our unsuccessful Eurovision entries, she’s done something. And, indeed, something worth listening to.
Tom: This isn’t aiming for the pop charts, and that’s absolutely fine. I do hope there’s an audience for this: I’m not part of it, but I hope there’s an audience out there.
Tim: As for the rest of the album, I’ve not yet had a chance to check it all out, but I can tell you that (a) as implied above, it’s all in this style, (b) the Green Day cover is pretty nice, and (c) the December entry is upsettingly non-Christmassy.