Author: Tim

C2C – Down The Road

“This passes the “dancing in my chair” test so, so well.”

Tom: A bit of introduction here. C2C are not the southeastern rail company, thankfully: they’re a French turntable group. So their shtick is to take old tracks — in this case, Mississippi bluesman Eddie Cusic’s You Don’t Have To Go — and shift them into something… else. And this is one hell of a remix.

Tom: This passes the “dancing in my chair” test so, so well.

Tim: Hmm. Well, I like the thing with the skateboard and the tyre, that was quite good.

Tom: It’s already reached number 1 in France; it probably won’t do quite as well in the UK but, bloody hell, it deserves to. The new album seems just as promising. Really, I’ve got nothing to add to this: I just bloody love it.

Tim: I know reading YouTube comments is often described as the first step to madness, but I do like the bluntness of the guy who just wrote “this is honestly the worst sound ive ever heard”. It’s not that bad – I think I’m just having trouble trying to work out what it’s meant to be.

Tom: You remember Mint Royale’s Singin’ In The Rain remix? It’s a bit like that. Hell, it’s even got a boots-and-cats beat going on in the background if you can’t quite get it.

Tim: The loud bit in the second half is quite listenable, but the rest of it just seems a little uninterpretable. Hmm.

Tom: Speak for yourself. I’ll keep dancing in my chair.

The Sound of Arrows – There is Still Hope (Fear of Tigers Remix)

“Bloody hell. That’s an amazing remix.”

Tim: The Sound of Arrows stuck a remix version of their still wonderful debut album on their website about six months back, and this wasn’t on it, because it only appeared online last week.

Tom: Bloody hell. That’s an amazing remix.

Tim: It’s not a proper release, but it is a damn good song almost reinterpreted, more than anything else. The original was good, but not as hands in the air, rave to the massive (yep) as this —

Tom: You know, I was going to argue with you about “rave to the massive”, but I reckon it’s actually the right phrase to use.

Tim: — more of a (very) slow builder that eventually reached this sort of level. I say reinterpretation because, well, the hope that there still is originally wasn’t so prevalent, what with it taking a while to arrive and stuff – yes, there’s hope, but we may well have a long journey ahead of us before things really improve. Here, though it doesn’t waste any time at all – it’s big, it’s bright, and things are getting better right now. As they should.

Though of course, I could be way overanalysing this and it’s actually just a jumped-up bigger version of the original. Either’s good.

Tom: It is indeed — and I hit the “download” button on SoundCloud pretty damn fast. Interestingly, the resulting file is “TISH 3.5.1.mp3” — implying that there are some other versions of this remix sitting on a producer’s hard drive somewhere. I’m glad this is the one that made it out.

Agnetha Fältzkog – Dance Your Pain Away

Away from the ballads and on to the disco floor!

Tom: Agnetha! You’ve gotta see her! Go insane and out of your mind! …just me?

Tim: That version? Yes, yes it really is just you.

Tom: Hey, it’s a good version. (At least you actually followed the link, though.) Anyway! Agnetha. What’s she got?

Tim: Second single off her solo album (which is really very good indeed, by the way), and it’s away from the ballads and on to the disco floor!

Tom: A quick note for our reader: this advice is not backed up by medical facts.

https://soundcloud.com/agnethafaltskog/dance-your-pain-away

Tom: Blimey! Everything from the synths to the strings in the background: it’s like it’s taken from the Disco Textbook.

Tim: It’s quite fun, isn’t it? If there’s pain, just dance it all away. Certainly seems to work for Agnetha, as there’s really very little pain here at all – just lots of happy synths rolling up and down, vocals that really do sound like they’re coming for a smiling mouth, and plenty of assurance that ‘he got nothing on you’.

Tom: It’s a good disco track: not a floor-filler by any means, but there’s nothing wrong with it.

Tim: It’s a reassuring message, and, sure, it’s working. I think all my pain has gone.

Tom: Either that or ibuprofen. That say, I wouldn’t be surprised if that middle eight has mild analgesic properties.

Tim: Yes, we can’t overstate this enough – this is only for emotional pain. Dancing to this really isn’t the best way to soothe a headache, or a dislocated shoulder. For that, I’d advise seeing a pharmacist. Or just stick to Riverdance.

Saturday Flashback: The Blam – Various Disgraces

Dammit, it’s just a good party track.

Tim: I’ve recently been gradually watching my way through all nine years of The Office —

Tom: Crikey. That’s a lot of cringe-humour: I can’t take more than an episode of it, generally.

Tim: — and in one episode there was a sort of party room set up where the employees to go to dance when they got stressed. This was one of the tracks that was played, and it’s really quite good.

Tim: It’s not a very nice track, lyrically – “you wear me out, there’s nothing I can do” – but play this loud and dammit, it’s just a good party track.

Tom: It is, and I’m surprised I haven’t heard it before. I thought it sounded about a decade old, and was rather glad a bit of research discovered that I was more or less exactly right.

Tim: You were indeed. The sound just works, like so many pop/indie/rock/punk tracks did back in the mid-00s. Stick this on a playlist with Blink 182, New Found Glory, Bowling For Soup, Boys Like Girls and all the others, whack the speakers up, splurge a load of spirits into a bowl with a token litre of pineapple juice and you’ve got yourself the recipe for a great house party.

Tom: Or a terrible one.

Tim: Ah, the wonderful Mongrels. A song for every occasion.

Magnus Carlsson – Glorious

We get whacked sharply on the head by that almighty chorus.

Tim: One of the most notable names in Swedish pop over the past couple of decades, Magnus is back with a new track. And, well, no prizes for guessing the word I’m considering using to describe it.

Tom: That’s a heck of a lead-in. This had better be… well, you know.

Tom: And it is! Well, that’s a nice surprise, although given his history I suppose I’d have been more startled if it was anything but.

Tim: It is brilliant, isn’t it? What a joyous track it is. The way there’s no real verse to speak of – just a couple of can’t-really-be-bothered lines before we head into the nice build-up of the pre-chorus, and get whacked sharply on the head by that almighty chorus.

Tom: And that almighty — pun intended — key change.

Tim: If you can’t quite work out where you’ve heard the ‘GLORIOUS’ melody before, it’s in Never Ending Story – he claims this is a mix of that and his previous Live Forever, “in a steamy affair with Carola’s Evighet and with Pet Shop Boys choirs and an overtone of my own Kom Hem.”

Tom: Well, at least he acknowledges it, although I do still want to do the descending “la la la” bit from Never Ending Story over the end.

Tim: We all do, Tom, and it seems even Magnus can’t help himself a couple of times. It’s quite an ambitious mixture he describes, but what a mixture it turns out to be. It’s wonderful, and it’s properly perked up my Friday. I love it.

Tom: I can only agree. Top work, Magnus.

Nova Delai – Just Love

Folk-pop, perhaps?

Tim: Nova is a Swedish singer, and in my view somewhat underappreciated. Here, her third single.

Tom: I was half-expecting that to go into “Against All Odds” after the intro.

Tim: A question: what genre’s this? Beyond just pop, I mean, with the heavy drums in the background. There are a lot of tracks around right now in this vein, not least Emmelie de Forest’s Eurovision winner, and I don’t know what to call them.

Tom: Folk-pop, perhaps? The vocals and instruments would seem to give it that kind of air.

Tim: Hmm, sounds pretty good. But regardless of the name, it’s a good track. I find myself needing to struggle through the verses somewhat, as they’re a bit bland and a bit shouty, but the chorus has a lovely first part and a good in a different way second part, and the middle eight could almost be described as delightful.

Tom: See, I’m not much of a folk-pop fan if I’m honest; while I can appreciate that musically, this is quite a good song, the style of vocals leaves me a bit cold. That’s my personal taste, though: since you seem to like the genre, what d’you think?

Tim: Seven out of ten for now, but higher if it had a nicer verse.

Lisa Miskovsky – Wild Winds

It’s lovely.

Tim: Lead single and title track from her upcoming album, this is. And it’s lovely.

Tim: The production is lovely, the singing is lovely, the backing sort-of-singing is lovely, all the tiny details buried in it are just lovely – it’s all gentle, peaceful and, well, lovely. This is the sort of track I like to put on, move over to another tab and have it as backing music. It’s just…well, it’s nice, isn’t it?

Tom: Oddly enough, that’s exactly what I did: after the intro, I put it into a background tab and promptly got distracted by other things. It’s… well, yes. I hate to overuse the word, but “lovely” pretty much sums it up.

Tim: Annoyingly, I can’t think of much else to say, possibly because this is just calming my brain down so much. It’s basically everything I want in a song like this – it’s meant to be a calming, peaceful track, and it manages that absolutely perfectly. I really can’t fault it at all – not even the fade-out ending, which here just seems to serve as a reminder to skip back to the beginning. Indefinitely.

One Direction – Nobody Compares

Top of the range pop music, I think you’ll agree.

Tim: This isn’t a current single; in fact, it’ll probably never be a single at all as it was an iTunes bonus track off their most recent album. However, let’s write about it now, because to be honest there’s not a lot of music I can find right now that seems worth covering after tracks that begin with a 7’8″ Ukrainian giant, but this is.

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

Tim: Top of the range pop music, I think you’ll agree.

Tom: When you’re the biggest boy band in the world, your team get the pick of every songwriter and producer in the world: even your iTunes album tracks are top-quality pop music.

Tim: Very true. A banging instrumental, a chorus with multiple memorable hooks in it and a basically nonexistent middle eight that automatically make the final section seem amazing. Top that off with lyrics about lipstick taste that are weirdly intimate, and you’ve got yourself a nearly flawless track, I reckon.

Tom: How do you compete with that? You have to step outside the formula: if you’re trying to be like One Direction, you can never quite match up. (We’re looking at you, Levine and Bannatyne.)

Tim: Weird side note: looking for this, I found a YouTube channel with “official” music videos for various One Direction album tracks such as this; they’re entirely fan made from actual footage of the band singing other songs, put together so it looks vaguely like they’re singing this. Some people are weird. Just, really weird.

Tom: Teen crushes are scary.

Loreen – We Got The Power

To be honest, I’m not all that keen.

Tim: You’ll have heard this on Saturday night; it’s a bit different, isn’t it?

Tom: I’ll say this much: the Eurovision interval act is a hell of a plug for a new single.

Tim: So, what to say? It’s the lead from her second album, out later this year, and to be honest I’m not keen on it.

Tom: I wasn’t expecting that from you. Why’s that?

Tim: I like Loreen – I like the type of music she’s come out with, and her first album was very good. There’s still plenty of material there to plunder, so I can only assume this is a sort of change of direction; that’s a real shame, because if all her new stuff’s going to sound like this then, well, then I won’t like it very much.

Tom: It certainly is a change, but it’s one I’m rather happy with it. Drumline backing and a sinister guitar may not be high-energy pop, but it’s certainly music that I enjoy listening to. This is a cracking pop song, even if it’s more minor-key than we’re used to.

Tim: I want arms in the air, spaced out dance music, not military-drumming stuff that only really inspires me to get up in order to skip to the next track. Am I demanding too much?

Tom: No, but you are demanding something different.

Janet Leon – New Colours

“That absolutely, totally, works with my brain.”

Tim: You, incorrectly, didn’t think much of Janet’s Melodifestivalen entry, Heartstrings; others apparently did, or at least enough to pay attention to her, as her follow-up is the official single of Stockholm Pride 2013, coming with an appropriately colourful lyric video.

Tom: That is excellent. To the point where I immediately downloaded it after listening through once.

Tim: Crikey.

Tom: It’s that good. It’s a very rare song that makes me do that, but this is that rare song. This is the kind of pop that absolutely, totally, works with my brain.

Tim: High praise there, for what is indeed a lovely lovely song. The lyrics don’t really tell the happiest story, although they sort of do because when a desire is sung like this then let’s be honest it’s going to happen, isn’t it. Janet is going to get her new colours, whatever they may metaphorically be, and then she’s going to parade around with them all and shout about it. Until then, though, she’s just going to make music like this.

Tom: She’s welcome to. Seriously, I don’t think I have any criticisms about this song. This is certainly the best pop song of the year so far — at least to me.

Tim: Powerful, beat heavy, club friendly, and happy. A good chorus that we can all sing along to. A massive closing section that everyone can go crazy to. Basically, music that is FUN.