Author: Tim

Dami Im – Crying Underwater

“Yeah, I do need to give it a bit of time.”

Tom: This is a traditional builder. I’m not saying it’s good, just give it a bit of time.

Tom: I’ve not actually got much to say about the track itself, though, other than to note how traditional the song structure is at a time when pop seems to have mostly left middle-eights behind.

Tim: Hmm, wouldn’t say that – dance music may certainly have done so, but standard pop music’s still got it. It’s a decent track, though, even if, yeah, I do need to give it a bit of time.

Tom: Here’s my question, though: the very first sound you hear in this track. The odd rising-note synth, the one that comes back during the choruses. Where have I heard that before? Who else uses it? Because it’s really frustrating me.

Tim: I’d love to be able to help you, but beyond an answer of ‘more or less anyone who’s done any sort of modern pop song since about 2016’ I can’t give you much, as I don’t specifically know it from anywhere.

Nea – Some Say

“What.”

Tim: So, I could introduce this by saying that New is the stage name of previously writer-only Linnea Södahl, or that the song is about love that will never be reciprocated, but neither of those things is even vaguely important, relative to what actually happens in the song.

Tom: What.

Tim: So, that is one of the most bizarre things I’ve heard in a long while. Straight sampling: fine. Redoing in a different genre: sure, why not (unless you’re Calum Scott). Doing this to it: again, can be okay (and in fact I’ve feeling this has already happened earlier this year, but I’m damned if can remember the specifics). BUT, what ludicrous set of circumstances would make you think “ooh, Eiffel 65 wrote a melody that everyone associates with late 90s novelty eurodance and it was a big one-off hit, I should use on this ballad I’m writing”?

Tom: It is very, very strange. Maybe it’s targeted at Gen-Z kids who won’t know the original well but might know the melody? After all, that’s basically what Pitbull did with Feel This Moment, albeit in the other direction, and he mostly got away with it.

Tim: Well, mainly because that was just Pitbull being Pitbull, we expect stuff like that. The cynical part of me is wondering if she’s only decided to launch her singing career because every established artist she’s sent it to has given it a hard pass but she was certain it’s a winner; I’m sure as hell not certain it is.

Steve Aoki feat. Backstreet Boys – Let It Be Me

“Way better than I thought it was going to be.”

Tom: Steve Aoki, DJ who isn’t throwing as much cake at people any more. And the Backstreet Boys, who don’t need any introduction. The result is…

Tom: …huh. Way better than I thought it was going to be.

Tim: Hmm, see I’d have put it at ‘roughly what I was expecting’, though I guess either works.

Tom: I think that’s mostly because the main artist and featured credits are the wrong way round here: this is a Backstreet Boys song (and a good one) with a well-remixed chorus and some probably-unnecessary goose-honk synths.

Tim: Maybe, though it’s very much the remix bit that takes the focus – I’d posit that if it were a less well known act providing vocals, this could get away with being an uncredited session singer.

Tom: Good chorus, though.

Valerie Broussard & Galantis – Roots

“Halfway between a dance-pop song and intro music for a slightly-too-earnest Saturday evening BBC light-entertainment show.”

Tim: For your delectation, a really quite lovely lyric video. And song, now I think about it.

Tim: And that right there is…entirely fine.

Tom: It’s halfway between a dance-pop song and intro music for a slightly-too-earnest Saturday evening BBC light-entertainment show.

Tim: There’s nothing to criticise about it: good melody, decent narrative in the lyrics, nice instrumental work underneath the vocals and a strong beat when we get to the dance post-chorus. It is, in fact, a perfectly serviceable dance tune, with some very good trademark Galantis brass in there. And that’s okay.

Tom: It is! I doubt it’s going to be the song of the summer, but there’s nothing wrong with it.

Tim: Well, yes, though having said that: it’s what I thought the first time I heard it. And then I played it again, and a few other times, as I do when I’m writing these, and now it’s really growing on me – that brass line, for example, with its short repeating notes, sounds lovely. I really like it. So here’s to a grower! It’s great.

Saturday Flashback: Grace Carter – Heal Me

“Was this song big anywhere?”

Tim: Tom, help me: was this song, from the beginning of this year, big anywhere?

Tom: Not as far as I know. I don’t recognise it.

Tim: It’s just, it’s so familiar (and not in the sense of ‘this sounds like that’, but in the actual ‘I have definitely heard this song before’), but it’s not charted anywhere, she’s barely been played on the radio recently (5 times in that past month), and it doesn’t seem to have been in any TV shows or films. But damn, I know I’ve heard it before, maybe even a lot.

Tom: I mean, that verse melody is coincidentally similar to Bo Burnham’s Country Song, but I doubt it. Are you sure you’ve heard this, specifically?

Tim: And I absolutely know that, because it’s really, really good. The strings and piano right from the off give us a fantastic start, her vocal is perfect and oh, that chorus is just divine. The sheer power there, it’s truly glorious.

Tom: I was all ready to disagree with you, and then I realised that a few minutes later, I could still hum the chorus.

Tim: Why didn’t it do better, Tom? Why?

Tom: It did get a million views. That’s a lot better than many.

Tim: Yeah, I guess.

Mika – Tiny Love

“Let’s pretend that bit doesn’t exist.”

Tom: I’ve been looking through the list of recently-released singles, and honestly it’s been difficult to find anything to talk about. Everything seemed a bit generic. But with this, at least I’ve got something to say.

Tim: Ooh, it’s like early Mika again!

Tom: First of all: brilliant intro and a great first verse. It’s full-on promising Mika, all orchestral and lovely, seemingly taking inspiration from Queen and ELO. The melody’s lovely, and his voice is amazing. It sounds like the best of “Life in Cartoon Motion” again.

Tim: It really does! In fact, there are some melody lines in there that sound just great.

Tom: And then there’s the chorus.

Tim: Which is still good, yeah.

Tom: And then there’s everything else that follows.

Tim: I’m guessing we’re talking about the bit following 2:45? Because yeah, that’s just dull. Let’s pretend that bit doesn’t exist.

Benjamin – Näytä Mulle Ne

“That chorus feels like it was designed for the audience at a talent contest to wave their arms back and forth to.”

Tim: When this starts, you might think you’re watching Top Gun, but I promise you you’re not. Instead, you’re listening to a song with a title translating to Show Me Them, where ‘them’ is all your little imperfections, because (genuine translation from what he’s said) “no-one wants to fall in love with Teflon”. True, I guess, because I can’t really see myself ever marrying a frying pan, but there’s probably a metaphor in there as well.

Tim: So as I hear it, what we’ve got here is a song with slightly irritating verses, which are largely made up for a rather lovely pop chorus.

Tom: That chorus feels like it was designed for the audience at a talent contest to wave their arms back and forth to. A very specific comment, there, I know, but am I wrong?

Tim: Not even slightly, and if we’re honest it quite possible was. We’ve also got the middle eight which mixes everything up a little, by which I really mean it gets chucked into a blender and turned on at full speed, because God knows what’s really happening there, but it sounds decent enough.

Tom: Odd vocal samples in there, too — and some strange choices of rhythm and percussion. But, yeah, okay, this is… this is… this is a song that exists. Sorry. Can’t get excited about it.

Tim: Goes back to a lovely normal for the closing chorus, though, and overall I’ll give this a distinctly positive rating. Can’t deny his look in the artwork does help with that, mind, but still. It’s nice.

Cascada – Like The Way I Do

“This did manage to exceed my expectations.”

Tom: New Cascada!

Tim: Hooray!

Tom: It probably won’t be nearly as good as their famous tracks!

Tim: True!

Tom: That is… a lot of autotune on the verses. I’m not sure if it’s a stylistic choice or just an overapplied fix. But at least the choruses sound a bit cleaner.

Tim: Hmm, see, I’m not normally that great at hearing autotune, unless it’s cranked up to 2011, but, yeah, it does seem a bit excessive.

Tom: Still, this did manage to exceed my expectations. It’s a solid track: it’s never going to define an entire generation’s clubbing lifestyle, but then very few tracks do. This is a solid dance track from people who know how to make them.

Tim: True, can’t deny any of that. It was never going to be amazing as the earlier work – hell, it could never be – but it’s good enough.

Lise Cabble – Tjekker Ind Og Ud

“Stick with it because it gets there.”

Tim: Lise’s Danish. and is quite the prolific songwriter, with multiple Danish Eurovision entries under her belt, and more than a few national finalists over the past couple of decades. Finally, though, she’s chosen to take centre stage with some actual singing! I’m fairly sure it’ll start off in your ‘why can’t this dance tune have a proper beat to it’ zone, but stick with it because it gets there.

Tim: Nice one?

Tom: I’m really, really, not convinced it does. Honestly, my attention wandered while trying to listen to it, and when I realised that I started it again. Only to — sorry, while writing that sentence I drifted off to look at some paint dry.

Tim: Seriously, though?

Tom: I exaggerate, but not overwhelmingly.

Tim: For me it’s in a kind of Alan Walker album track type zone – that starts off based on those few seconds after 0:20 into the chorus, which is very much like one of his tracks that I can’t place right now but then when we get our first proper instrumental breakdown it’s fully on board, and you might not believe this, but actually I quite like that.

Tom: I mean, I believe it, but only because we have disagreed about much more interesting bits of music than this.

Tim: It’s perhaps not a song I’ll listen to a whole lot – but I’ll like it when it comes on, and I’m fairly sure that’s good enough. Maybe don’t quit the writing. though.

Cedric Gervais & Chris Willis – Turn Your Love Around

“It’s exactly the sort of middle-of-the-road not-quite-funky-house track that I quite like.”

Tom: I’ll be honest, I mostly clicked on this because I was intrigued by the name “Cedric Gervais”.

Tim: Yep, entirely fair.

Tom: Turns out he’s a Miami-based French DJ, and this sounds like someone’s combined late Motown and early Daft Punk with the song structure from a track on an early-2000s dance compilation.

Tim: That is…yeah, specific but exactly right. A good sound, I’d say.

Tom: It’s exactly the sort of middle-of-the-road not-quite-funky-house track that I quite like, and that will probably be utterly ignored because that’s just not a genre the world’s interested in right now. Which feels like a shame, really.

Tim: Also true. Mind you, earlier today I was listening to a playlist of Ultrabeat, DJ Sammy, Kelly Llorenna, September and the like, and this fits perfectly.