Author: Tim

Pandora – I Feel Alive

“This is a lovely track.”

Tim: Pandora, a Swedish songstress who did all her big stuff in the nineties, but has been going strong and is now celebrating twenty years in the business. She’s also made a video to go with it of some highlights, so that’s nice. (Though try not to look at the lyrics.)

Tom: I can actually believe she’s done that video herself, which is either lovely or a terrible damning of someone else’s editing skills.

Tim: Well, yes, the lyrics bit of that video is awful, with a nice copy-and-pasted-three-times typo, but that’s not so bad because there’s a proper video on the way, apparently, and hopefully that also won’t have the audience at the end.

Tom: “Those of you who do not want to participate in this video, please contact us,” says the video description. I don’t even know how that’d work.

Tim: No. No, I’m not quite sure. But anyway, those minor things aside, this is a lovely track.

Tom: Agreed: it’s a pretty damn good bit of pop music.

Tim: It’s very happy, it’s celebratory like it should be, a euphoric dance track that we can all get excited to, and, as this video actually shows quite nicely, one that we can all have a wonderful time singing along to. There have been twenty years that we can all be very grateful for, and this is great way of celebrating them.

Amy Diamond – Your Love

“Would be better if the chorus was a bit more varied”

Tom: Our reader, Roger, sends in this new single. Now, we’ve covered Amy Diamond, her of the Greatest Hits album at 18 years old, a few times before — and each time we’ve found ourselves generally unimpressed.

Advance warning: this is an unofficial YouTube copy, so the compression on it’s a bit dodgy.

Tom: Well, I’m more impressed than I have been than some of her previous tracks, which I’ve outright dismissed, in one case as “sugar piled on top of sugar”. This still doesn’t seem to work properly for me, though.

Tim: Hmm. It’s still quite sugary, but I think it does work for me. Would be better if the chorus was a bit more varied, though.

Tom: Roger does say it’s a bit repetitive — but then, that can still make a catchy track, as Daft Punk found out this year. But this ain’t Daft Punk; it’s just a track with an unmemorable melody that keeps repeating “your love, your love, your love”.

Tim: Yes. My problem with Daft Punk wasn’t the repetitiveness of it so much as the reasoning – I got the feeling that it had been put there not because they was nothing else but just in order to deliberately be repetitive and get stuck in peoples’, almost cynically so. This feels the other way – that they couldn’t think (or couldn’t be bothered to think) of anything more. Not sure if that’s better or worse, really.

Tom: It’s worth pointing out that Amy wrote most of this herself, for the first time; the backing vocalists are her sisters, and she’s even got a credit for the cover design. And while that’s admirable… it still feels a bit like stock music in the background of a TV show: there to be talked on top of. And that’s a shame, because there’s a gem of genius in here somewhere — it’s just spread very thin.

Avicii – Hey Brother

“It’s been quite the successful change.”

Tim: This is pretty much the least Avicii-sounding song he’s ever put out since he adopted that mantle. And it’s brilliant for it.

Tom: You say that, but this now sounds rather like what an Aviici track should be to me — or at least, what I’ve now come to associate with him. It’s been quite the successful change.

Tim: Right – Wake Me Up went someway to ditching the piano dance that he’d become almost synonymous with, and here it’s completely out of the window with not a keyboard in sight. It’s not entirely unrecognisable – the brass has filled in the gap, but otherwise a similar formula – but this will certainly go a long way to quietening the crowd that unimaginatively describe him as a one-trick pony. And that’s a very good thing.

Tom: Agreed. This is just a brilliant track, and while it’ll probably need a remix before it hits the Clubland ‘best of’, that’s not a complaint: I like this new Avicii.

Leona Lewis – One More Sleep

Get pissed on the mulled wine, and stop feeling sorry for yourself.

Tim: That’s right – another Friday, and another stupidly early Christmas track from an artist who should know better.

Tom: Oh, crikey. It’s not even November yet.

Tim: The first second is filled with sleigh bells, the first word sung is ‘snow’ – yep, this is a festive song, and it’s taking the road of loneliness.

Tom: Or at least, anticipation.

Tim: I’m not quite sure I get this, though – she knows her sweetheart’s coming home on Christmas day, and in the meantime is apparently choosing just to mope around getting bored. Why is this? You’ve already said he’s home on the 25th, so quit with all the ‘staring at the window’ and bloody have some fun. Surprise him! Bake him a cake, or decorate the front of the house with ludicrous amounts of coloured lighting. Buy him a massive present, and go to a Christmas Eve party and get pissed on the mulled wine. Just stop feeling sorry for yourself. He’ll be having fun, so why can’t you?

Tom: Musically, though?

Tim: Musically, though – good lord, it’s utterly wonderful.

Tom: Yep. It’s another one taking its cue from the retro, hyper-saturated, reverberating performances of years ago. The Wall of Sound is back in fashion, folks: the revival of Disco Christmas has passed by.

Tim: YES.

Tom: I can only assume that by 2040 it’ll be Dubstep Christmas.

Tim: Oh.

Tove Lo – Out Of Mind

“Well-composed and well-sung, it shows off the art of music production”

Tim: Fancy seeing a Swede pull her head apart?

Tom: Wait, literally? ‘Cos I’ve got to be honest, the answer is no.

Tim: Well, you’re going to.

Tom: Well, that was unexpectedly lovely. Am I wrong for thinking that? That was a really nicely put together visual metaphor, really well shot, and with — if I might get my opinion in early — a really fantastic tune behind it.

Tim: You’re not wrong at all. It’s a video inspired by diary entries, which paints a somewhat bleak picture of her childhood, but we’re not here to psychoanalyse (fortunate, really, as she said in an interview about how the demons and dark thoughts just won’t leave her head). Instead, we’re here to listen to music, which makes this a perfectly good track to be going on with. It starts out quiet and downbeat, in a Lana Del Ray style type thing, but then quickly becomes loud and downbeat which works wonderfully.

Tom: Agreed. Aside from being well-composed and well-sung, it shows off the art of music production: there’s just so much going on, but none of it overpowers the rest.

Tim: To be honest, I’m having slight trouble reconciling the video with the lyrics – don’t get me wrong, it’s a great video, but accusing someone else of being out of their mind while showing an image of yourself being slightly deranged doesn’t really seem quite right. Unless she’s singing it to herself, which I suppose is a possibility, but then OH I DON’T KNOW.

Tom: No, you’ve missed a key lyric there: “You’re out of your mind to think that I could keep you out of mine.” He thinks she’ll forget about him easily after he’s gone. She won’t.

Tim: Ohhh…oh yes. Well, anyway. What I’ve not missed is that the actual music sits very right indeed, so let’s keep the two separate and we’ll all be fine.

Cody Simpson – La Da Dee

“It’s like candy floss.”

Tim: This is from the wonderful Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2, and if that combined with the title doesn’t give you an idea of the saccharine tidal wave that’s rapidly heading this way, there’s something wrong with you.

Tom: Oh crikey. He didn’t even bother with lyrics for most of the chorus.

Tim: The ukelele often irritates me as an instrument, just because it’s basically a guitar foetus and grown men can’t possibly look sensible holding them; Cody here is a case in point.

Tom: Bloody hell, Tim. “Guitar foetus.” That’s going to stick with me for a while.

Tim: You’re very welcome. Entirely not worth noting are the lyrics, being entirely bland – so much so that, as you pointed out, by the chorus the lyricist has given up any pretence that there was once a meaning there and is now just basically putting syllables in an order.

However, neither of those things put me off this because, meaningless as it is, the chorus is just lovely. I’m sure there are grumpy bastards out there who won’t have any of it, but I’ve got a big smile on my face and it’s not going anywhere.

Tom: I can’t even get grumpy about it. It’s just… it’s nothing. It’s like candyfloss: it dissolves instantly, and leaves just a faint wisp of sugar behind. Also, just like candyfloss, I don’t partiuclarly care for it.

Tim: Hmm. Candyfloss is exactly right, actually. But it works for me.

Truls – Tear Me Up

“I don’t have much of a problem this time.”

Tim: Dreamy synthpop, you say? Yes, why not.

Tim: And it’s quite nice. We’ve heard his falsetto vocals previously – you said you weren’t a fan, but I had no problem then and I still don’t.

Tom: Perhaps it seems to fit the track better, but I don’t have much of a problem this time.

Tim: It’s like yesterday’s track – nice and gentle, and working well with the backing such that we have a dance track where every part knows its place.

Tom: Unlike yesterday, I agree here: it does work well together.

Tim: Loud as necessary, quiet otherwise, and all around lovely. Album coming out within a few weeks, so keep a look out for that if you do in fact want to.

The sad truth is, though, nobody, but nobody, can do this like The Sound of Arrows can. Some can come close, as this does coming back from the middle eight, but none really make it. So, HELLO OSKAR AND STEFAN ARE YOU LISTENING PLEASE IT’S BEEN TWO YEARS NOW THANK YOU.

Bjørn Olav Edvardsen – Avalanche

Another dancey-ballady thing.

Tim: Previously seen via his dancey-ballady thing called Mountains, here’s his next one that’s, well, a dancey-ballady thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xNN10qVwrQ

Tim: No repeat of the lovely video theme from previously, alas, as it’s less a video, and more a couple of odd images and some logos. But oh well, the music. Much like last time, very listenable indeed.

Tom: Ooh, really? I found the constant volume jumps in the background of the chorus just a bit unsettling – like there was something wrong and it hadn’t quite kicked in properly.

Tim: I really do love the way his voice goes with the music – I’m probably repeating myself, but the yearning fits brilliantly with the backing that it’s, while not by any means low-key, not appearing as really wanting to be a part of the show. It’s happy to lay back and let the singing take over, and that’s a great theme that both his songs have worked with.

Tom: It just doesn’t mesh well for me: it’s like several different parts have been jammed together, not even working particularly well harmonically.

Tim: Well, I think it’s very pleasant indeed.

Tom: I have to disagree.

Tim: Oh, shame.

Ace Wilder – Bitches Like Fridays

“This is, basically and entirely, awful.”

Tom: That title doesn’t bode well.

Tim: No, it doesn’t. But then, Do It is one of the best tracks we’ve featured this year. So might it be followed up by something as impressive?

Tim: Ah. No. Not at all. This is, basically and entirely, awful.

Tom: Yep. That’s terrible.

Tim: The lyrics, I think, can be summed up by lines that include a “necklace made of pearl” and, well, the entire title line, so they’re out. The music, when it’s not being a total racket, is reminding me of Rebecca Black’s unfortunate Friday from a couple of years back, so that’s out.

Tom: That day is basically ruined for all lyricists now.

Tim: The video, meanwhile, I won’t pick out any single points from because that would imply other parts of it aren’t horrific. So really, OH DEAR ME. Can we go back to January?

The Neverdies – STHLM

Pop dressed as punk.

Tim: I am fairly sure you’ll like this, Tom. This Swedish band call themselves punk, which I suppose it technically is, but only in the same way that Best Song Ever is rock. Basically it’s pop, spiced up a bit.

Tom: That’s promising, certainly.

Tim: Well?

Tom: Excellent chorus. Good verses. And an excellent, almost-80s guitar-solo in the middle eight that comes much earlier than you’d expect — and complete with a rising bit at the end.

Tim: Quite why the mild dance synths are there at the beginning and the end is a mystery, as is the omission of letters from the track title, but never mind because the rest is pretty great.

Tom: It took me way too long to work out that STHLM meant “Stockholm”.

Tim: Oh, well, if we’re doing confessions, I may as well say that it took me a full eighteen months to realise that Madonna’s album MDNA was a drugs pun.

Tom: Oh good, it wasn’t just me.

Tim: This track, meanwhile, is pop dressed as punk, and on many occasions (house parties, getting ready for a Night On The Town) that really can be the best type of pop, especially when it’s done as well as it is here.

Tom: There’s one particular guitar chord in the chorus — on the ‘all’ in “just don’t care at all” — that absolutely floored me. STHLM isn’t going to become an anthem for me — it’s not quite there — but I can see it becoming one for a lot of people.

Tim: As for the video, it’s not up yet, but it’ll probably be the usual band playing enthusiastically, flashing lights in time with the music, the odd Busted Jump™, that sort of thing, interspersed with people people partying, and that’s a decent sort of video. So well done to them for that as well. Basically, well done all round. A Top Track.