Tom: Oh, did you not see that story? Yep, he’s changed his name again. “Snoop Lion feat. Miley Cyrus”. Let’s just take a moment and realise how silly the music industry has gotten recently.
Tom: I don’t know what to think of this. It’s a mess of reverb and multi-tracked voices, as if the whole thing is being played back inside a large metal room.
Tim: NOISE. AWFUL.
Tom: Well, yes. By the time you’re about 60 or 90 seconds into the track, you’ve pretty much heard everything: if you’re going to try to milk a hook and chorus for this long, then you should at least have the decency to manage a key change or something. This just drones on a bit.
Tim: NOISILY. AWFULLY.
Tom: I’m still a bit stunned by the phrase “Snoop Lion feat. Miley Cyrus”, really.
Tim: I think I could with a lie down. And possibly an overdose.
Tim: One of my favourites from the Icelandic final, and it’s like Eurovision from ten years ago has decided to pay us a visit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMX3bE5ZV30
Tom: When the instrumentation drops in – complete with twinkly chimes, no less! – it turns into something of a Disney number, if Disney liked synth-backed middle-eights and wind machines. Simple, major-key, with a style that seems almost aspirational – and a flowing white dress, too.
Tim: Yes, oh yes. Isn’t it lovely? It’s disappointing how few big schlager tracks we’ve had around this year, so it’s lovely to see that it really is alive and well in some quarters. Even with the Emperor from Star Wars being resurrected four times for backing singer duties, it’s a beautiful track.
Tom: I think perhaps they were going for more the “evil Disney crone” myself, but either way it does seem a bit odd.
Tim: The titles translates to “Among the Spirits”, and it’s basically about being lost in the darkness then finding her way home; I think she conveys that well enough, especially in the triumphant post-key change (THERE’S A KEY CHANGE!) final chorus.
Tom: Told you. Icelandic-Disney soundtrack.
Tim: It wouldn’t stand a chance of winning, mind, so from Iceland’s perspective it’s right that it didn’t go through, but, man, sometimes I pine for the days when Eurovision was all about the key change.
“Wake up to the radio, think ‘ooh, this is pleasant'”
Tim: Standard story: wake up to the radio, hear it in a half-asleep state, think ‘ooh, this is pleasant’ and then find out what it was. A French band, which has somehow out of nowhere made it onto the Radio 1 B-list. (And Tom, you’ll want to skip the first 25 seconds.)
Tom: Skipped.
Tim: Standard story number 2: I don’t really know what’s going on in the video, and I don’t really mind, because it’s all about the music. The lyrics also are a bit of a mish-mash, but again, it’s the music that takes pride of place, because it really is cracking.
Tom: Really? That surprises me. It just seems over-distorted and a bit atonal to me. What stands out for you?
Tim: Well, while it’s perhaps not all that memorable, that’s largely because there’s a lot of it – it’s fast and fairly aggressive, but in a slightly dreamy manner (emphasised by the vocals). Until I’d heard this I’d have thought that was a somewhat ludicrous combination, but it really seems to work for me here. Very pleasant indeed.
Tom: It’s one of those tracks that – while I can understand why other people might like it – doesn’t engage me at all. Still, to each their own.
Straight off a 2003-era Ministry of Sound compilation CD
Tim: It’s above average generic dance music time!
Tim: This is, pretty much, straight off a 2003-era Ministry of Sound compilation CD – the Annual ones they do which back then were brilliant but now are full of crap like Chris Brown and Wiley. Moan over, this is very good.
Tom: Agreed – it sounds almost retro by now, like a track that got held over for ten years.
Tim: Summer-style Eurotrance, kind of heard it all before – is the backing a fairly clear rip-off of Inna’s two-and-a-half year old track Amazing? Why yes, yes I do believe it is, but so what.
Tom: I don’t hear a close match there myself, but then there’s an argument that pretty much everyone in the ‘generic dance music’ industry’s been ripping everyone else off for years.
Tim: Very true, and I suppose a lack of innovation is, in theory, bad for the music industry as a whole BLAH BLAH BLAH but it does in this case provide a very listenable and danceable track.
Tom: The music video seems somewhat awkward – why is it in a bowling alley? Why does it seem deserted? And why is everyone dancing just a little bit awkwardly? Still – can’t complain about the music.
Tim: Indeed – the music’s good, I’m happy, we’re sorted.
Tim: We mentioned last week the prevalence of dance music in this year’s Melodifestivalen and how tracks had to be very good to succeed; this is one that succeeded, or at least got through to the final via Andra Chansen.
Tim: This track is, arguably, just as standard as all the others. It’s a good tune, sure, but there’s nothing really special about the track that elevates it musically above the rest, although the genre-shifted breakdown’s provides a bit of relief.
Tom: The synths in that chorus seem to be rather close to Taio Cruz’ “Dynamite“, too – although from a vote-winning perspective, that could be seen as a good thing.
Tim: What’s less of a good thing, votes-wise, is the somewhat shoddy vocal performance, and the backing that wouldn’t be there to help him in May.
Tom: Yep, the note as he came out of the middle eight was… well, let’s charitably say that it wasn’t really up to the Eurovision final’s exacting standards.
Tim: It does have two big things for it, though: a singer that a lot of girls and no small amount of guys would love to take home with them, and (most importantly) some proper atmosphere. There are big lights, and there is a lot of smoke, so anybody watching can immediately translate that to a heaving, sweaty nightclub full of smoke and lights and picture themselves dancing to it whilst drunk off their tits. Eddie Razaz, discussed last week, didn’t really have that same quality to it – it was a dance track being performed on stage, but only that – and I’m guessing that’s why this one got as far as it did.
I got distracted during that first verse and then woke up during that chorus.
Tim: First single off her second album, this is.
Tom: And just to repeat, again: “not that Gabrielle”.
Tim: What we have here is a song you start playing, think ‘yeah, it’s alright’, get distracted reading something or other, and end up missing the blinder of a chorus that the verses really don’t do justice to. So if you missed it, go back and have another listen. It’s worth it.
Tom: That’s actually exactly what happened with me. I got distracted during that first verse and then, well, “woke up” during that chorus.
Tim: The verses are nice enough, sure, but they’re not really much out of the ordinary. That chorus, though, short as it may be, does come with some fantastic instrumentation to it which is brilliant. I just wish it was longer, and the verses were a bit shorter. Or perhaps just better. That’d be preferable, I think.
Tim: I don’t quite know how I missed this, to be honest, but at the beginning of the year Blue released a new album (admittedly, only in Germany), and this was the lead single.
Tom: Blimey. That’s surprising – after Eurovision, I thought they’d gone back to doing student gigs. How’d it do?
Tim: It went top 10 in aforementioned Germany, so next month it’s being released over here. Hurrah!
Tom: Crikey, that’s actually a really good track. Anthony Costa is increasingly slipping into looking like a stereotypical mob gangster, though. (Side note: Duncan James has a surprisingly entertaining sideline in reading out questions on rollercoasters these days.)
Tim: Quick video note: that was was made for the single as a soundtrack to the German film Schlussmacher; last Friday’s video for the British release is, erm, not available to view in Britain.
Tom: They copyright-blocked their own video. Well done there.
Tim: Still, the song, and as ballads go it’s pretty good one. Fairly hefty instrumentation, and while the verses are of the type don’t really serve as much more than lead-ins to the chorus, it’s a damn good chorus, once everything’s got going. A calm start, followed by a very repeatable hook, sort of Bleeding Love-style, and I think it works very well. I like it a lot.
Tom: Agreed. This isn’t just a “keep it going, lads” track – this could have been released by Blue at their height, and it’d have gone to number one.
Tim: Yes. Ten years on, though, and I suppose if it gets enough airplay, I can still see this fairly doing well. As far as airplay goes, though, my prediction is this: Radio 1 will decree it’s not relevant, Radio 2 might stick it on their B-list, and commercial stations will probably give it the same amount of priority, maybe a tad higher. On release you’re probably looking at the lower end of the top 20. Not bad, I guess.
Tim: I know, Tom, I know, you don’t like Eurovision spoilers, and for that reason I won’t say a word to describe this song, which is Ukraine’s entry. Push the mute button, and watch the video. (It’s safe to say this is not the performance you’ll be watching on the night.)
Tim: And what about that.
Tom: Crikey.
Tim: Dragonflies made of GOLD LIGHT. Butterflies made of BLUE LIGHT. MYSTIC SPARKS. Islands FLOATING IN THE SKY. STUPIDLY-COLOURED hummingbirds. UNICORNS. Bloody UNICORNS. Seriously, WHAT.
Tim: You may be wondering why Ukraine, a small country, chose to spend probably a majority of its entire GDP on one three-minute video, and, by any sensible judgment, you’d be right to ask. According to the YouTube wizards, it had a lot to do with the people. Once the song had been chosen, last December (yes, December), the broadcaster said, roughly: give us your ideas. And boy, did they get ideas. 608, to be precise – some, apparently, were “constructive”, and others were “fantastic/impossible”. You know, I would love to know what the impossible ones were. Dinosaurs? Swarming armies of Triffids?
Tom: Having any sense of reserve?
Tim: BUT. It wasn’t just the video – there’s a reason the song was chosen in December. I said I wouldn’t describe the song, and I won’t, but once it had been chosen by the public, elements of it were put up for review on Ukraine’s premier social networking site – the tempo, how many choruses, prominence of backing vocals, ‘power’ of the opening – and votes were taken. Results were gathered, the composers went back to their room, and two months later we have a song, considerably different, and improved, from the original. That, my friend, is how a voting public decides a song.
Tom: Blimey. Somehow I can’t see the BBC managing that.
Tom: Our regular reader Roger sends in this track from Melodifestivalen. He was there for the live show in Skellefteå, and says the song “did not hit me immediately, but now it’s the one I miss the most in the final.”
Tim: Yes, I remember this one, and also not being particularly enthused; I’ve not listened to it since, though, so let’s have a listen.
Tim: Hmm. Still can’t say it really catches me as a song that needed to qualify.
Tom: The odd effect you can hear on the vocals is him singing not-quite-in-time with a backing-vocal copy of himself – it doesn’t seem to be harmonised, which is strange. It’s a lovely chorus – and a long one, with several different parts to it. I’m not sure the verses would be quite good enough to cover it, but since there doesn’t seem to be much verse to speak of anyway that’s a minor quibble.
Tim: You’re right on all of that, but I mentioned when we were discussing Janet Leon (from the same heat, incidentally) a few weeks back that there was a lot of generic EDM in this year’s competition – anything of the genre would need to really stand out in order to qualify. This, well, didn’t. A decent song, but in a crowded pool.
“Sean Paul has apparently arrived straight from a Peter Andre song.”
Tom: Unusually, this song and video are available in two versions: and I suspect you’ll prefer the version that completely excludes Sean Paul. We’re not talking about that version because, frankly, it’s a bit boring.
Tim: Hmm – I’d normally say yes to any absence of rappers, but the middle eight there could do with some livening up.
Tim: Oh, it’s not just the middle eight he limits himself to. Crikey.
Tom: Because what we have here is a generic synth-backed Saturdays pop song. Generic video with dancing and arty filters. Generic melody that I can’t remember at all. Generic lyrics about sex that parents of their younger fans won’t notice. And then… then there’s Sean Paul.
Tim: Hmm. He does at least avoid the school register vibe that Flo Rida provided.
Tom: I’d forgotten how good that track was. It’s everything that this should be – even Flo Rida. Sean Paul, meanwhile, has apparently arrived straight from a Peter Andre track.
Tim: Hahahaha, he has and all.
Tom: Now, if you’ve got a bassy Jamiacan accent, someone applies a bit of reverb to it, and you’re interjecting into a dance track, you’re going to sound like that guy from ‘Mysterious Girl’. Was that the effect they were going for, I wonder? Because once you stop thinking of it as an irritating interjection, and instead a throwback to 1995 and the only thing that makes the song vaguely interesting, it’s not all that bad.
