Author: Tim

Saturday Reject: Ulrik Munther – Soldiers

Blimey, when that kicks in, it kicks in hard.

Tim: Unlike Lisa Miskovsky a couple of weeks back, here you can hear Ulrik playing his instruments, and then coming third. With quite a good song.

Tom: Blimey, when that kicks in, it kicks in hard. Put the drummer on a stand, and make him work for his pay.

Tim: Now, I really like this, despite a lot of reasons not to – the melody’s not much more than average, the hate and sleeveless top make him look like a bit of a bell-end and the hands-free harmonica sort of makes me want to slap his ‘look at what I can do’ attitude.

Tom: Agreed on all points.

Tim: But on the other hand, the drumming in the background adds a lot to the song, that harmonica sounds great even if it looks silly, and the vocal’s pretty great as well. So really, the best thing for me to do is listen to this but not watch it. Which, of course, would make this a terrible type of song to send to Eurovision.

Tom: I do wonder how many Eurovisions would have turned out differently if they’d been purely on the radio.

Tim: Well, Lordi can kiss goodbye to their victory for a start. And a hell of a lot of wind-machine manufacturers would go out of business.

Poppy and the Jezebels – Sign In, Dream On, Drop Out

Slightly quirky vocals, bouncy electronica backing, and a liking for retro-styling.

Tom: A female electronica trio with slightly quirky vocals, bouncy electronica backing, and a liking for retro-styling. Yep, it’s the Pipettes. No, sorry. It’s “Poppy and the Jezebels”, apparently.

Tim: Decent enough name.

Tom: Now I’ve made the comparison, though, I can’t help but think of them as a less catchy version of the Pipettes. I can’t really think of anything else to add: there’s nothing wrong with it, I just keep expecting something to set them apart. It’s all… nice.

Tim: Well, it is quite catchy – chorus certainly goes on long enough to make it so. It’s a good chorus, though it’s let down by the fact that despite concentrating very hard, I’m entirely unable to make out the first line of it. And that annoys me, because a song like this is one I want to sing along to when I’m feeling chirpy.

Tom: I do find myself constantly distracted during the video by the fact they haven’t got their placards in order. I shouldn’t find that annoying, but I do.

Tim: Not as annoying as you would have found the three guys at the Scooter gig I went to at the weekend that held up signs with “HARDER”, “SCOOTER”, and “FASTER” on them. In that order.

Tom: GAH. I cringed, Tim, and I wasn’t even there.

AWOLNATION – Jump On My Shoulders

“This is, quite simply, fantastic.”

Tom: Any listeners with sensitive ears: watch out for a quick F-bomb at the end of this one.

Tim: Ooh, they missed an apostrophe in there. That’s not good.

Tom: “Thats not good”, surely? Anyway, reader Isabella writes in with this one and adds: “This is, quite simply, fantastic.” A bold statement.

Tim: Bold indeed, but certainly an acceptable viewpoint. Any further thoughts?

Tom: Well, she’s also sent a well-written summary of the song that more-or-less matches with my thoughts, so I’ll quote it here:

“I can best describe the verses as ‘biting’ but the unbelievably poppy chorus reaches stratospheric heights (just WAIT until the beat of the first one kicks in) and the full-on screaming near the end actually enhances the effect rather than feeling out-of-place.”

Tim: Do you know, that pretty much matches my views as well.

Tom: It’s a cracking chorus. Now, I think that she’s being charitable with ‘biting’, that the Keynotes-esque follow-the-bouncing-ball effect on the lyrics does the band no favours at all—

Tim: Nor does the apostrophe they missed, although I like what they did with the ‘jump on my shoulders’.

Tom: —and the middle eight overstays its welcome a bit… but this is a proper anthemic singalong track, and I can forgive them all that.

Tim: Yeah. And although after a minute and a half or so it felt like it would have to drag on a lot, it really didn’t when it played out. Good stuff.

Pitbull – Back In Time

And now he’s gone and done something brilliant.

Tom: So yesterday, I ranted about Pitbull. And now he’s gone and done something brilliant. I don’t know what to think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIDwgpBh0Aw

Tim: Hmm. I think…’brilliant’? Really?

Tom: I listened to this back to back several times. There are very few songs that make me do that. Anyway, this is the song for Men In Black 3. To say that he’s got a tough act to follow is an understatement: the original film brought us, well, Will Smith’s “Men In Black”. I shouldn’t like this. But I do. I think it’s more to do with the background.

Tim: There, you could be right, because it is good. Not brilliant, I think, but positive, certainly.

Tom: He’s sampling a track from 1972 called “Love Is Strange”, and oh my word is he ever improving it. He’s kept the good bits of the original – that beautiful chord progression and voice – but modernised it with a decent pace and beat. It’s not sacrilege: it’s a massive improvement.

Tim: Agreed. If you’re choosing to sample that song, this is a good way of doing it, paying it decent service. It’s far, far better than it could have been.

Tom: Now, it’s not as good as Will Smith’s original. No-one’s going to be singing this in the playgrounds. (I remember kids singing the original, or at least a dirty version of it, in my school’s playground.) But is it good? Hell yes. Even the unexpected dubstep background works for me.

Tim: Me too. God, I’m really starting to like that stuff now.

Tom: Maybe it’s because the film is ridiculous, the music is ridiculous, and Pitbull is ridiculous. He just fits. I can live with that.

Jennifer Lopez feat. Pitbull – Dance Again

The chorus is just glorious.

Tom: Let this one run, Tim, the chorus is just glorious.

Tim: You know, I wish you’d given me a bit of notice that we were going to turn in into to one of those sites, because I’ve got some much better videos than that one.

Tom: There is a lot of flesh in this video. Unfortunately, too much of it is Pitbull’s. I… I don’t understand Pitbull. I mean, I don’t understand anything about him. I swear he’s a parody artist that’s somehow been taken seriously. Look at the first few seconds of him in this video. Just look at him.

Tim: Oh, come on. You’re trying to tell me you’ve never once used the words “Shimmy shimmy yo shimmy sham shimmy yay” in a conversation?

Tom: He describes himself as a “modern day Hugh Hefner”. With a pencil moustache.

Tim: The moustache, I’ll give you. The Hefner thing, well, it does at least fit with all his pervy mutterings as he skulks in the corner.

Tom: I don’t know what to think about this track. The rap bit is terrible, the strange breakdown in the middle is appalling, and yet. And yet. There’s that absolutely gorgeous chorus. That’s the best chorus I’ve heard in a long while.

Tim: It is a cracker, and I actually don’t have a problem with Pitbull here. A lot of rapping in songs, I hate. But this just seems to work for me, or at least not ruin it, mainly because compared to that chorus and the rest of it, he just seem…unimportant, really, not actually doing much aside from the occasional murmuring.

Tom: Oh, come on, he’s got entire verses, not to mention the introduction. Actually, you know what I want? I want this song performed by “Jennifer Lopez Not Featuring Pitbull”.

Tim: In that case, I will offer you my full sympathies, understanding and support for any campaign you pursue, because eighteen months on I still haven’t got over the Flo Rida/Saturdays debacle.

Calle Runefelt – Walk On Water

I haven’t even got past the first verse, and I completely agree that it’s better.

Tim: Remember that Machine one from Friday that was in the competition? Well actually, don’t vote for that because this is better.

Tim: And just so you know, I wrote that first sentence even before it got to 2:51, and at that moment I was properly sold.

Tom: As I’m writing this, I haven’t even got past the first verse, and I completely agree that it’s better. Now, admittedly, in this case “better” means “more suited to my musical tastes”, but, you know potato-potahto.

Tim: That chorus has a proper tap/clap/click/something to the beat vibe about it, and even in comparison the verses have still got a decent amount of stuff to them. And then when you throw in the key change – admittedly after all the stopping and starting in the middle eight it had to finish with something pretty good, but that there just makes up for it, the memories of the dodgy bit are thrown out of the window and all that’s left is the triumphant soaring bit in the background, all wrapped up nicely.

Tom: “Soaring” is the right word: but I’m all in favour of a middle eight with strange drum fills and patterns – particularly when the payoff is that good.

Tim: So we’re agreed – this is where you should vote. Not that other one. I forbid you.

Saturday Reject: Plumbo – Ola Nordmann

That starts like a reject from a Michael Flatley routine.

Tim: Here’s a question you’ve probably never been asked before: how many rock bands can you name with a flautist?

Tom: Depends. How good’s the flautist’s musical knowledge? Oh. Wait, never mind. Er, none.

Tim: Well, you can change that to one.

Tom: That starts like a reject from a Michael Flatley routine.

Tim: We’ve got another case here Reidun Sæther’s “THIS IS WHERE THE KEY CHANGE IS”, though to a slightly lesser extent, and while this could sort of be described as rock music, it could just as accurately be described as schlager-dressed-as-rock music. Standard progression of verses and choruses, key change, closing bit, it’s all in there. And, like many songs of this type, it works pretty damn well.

Tom: Amazing how one flute can change the tone so much, though.

Tim: It is, isn’t it? If it—the rock genre bit, that is, although it’s the case for the flute as well—became a regular thing, I don’t think it’d be so good, as part of the charm of these songs is the way they play with expectations. If it was expected, it’d be dull, and no more appealing than the usual stuff, and arguably less so. But as it is, it’s good.

Tom: That said, I can’t see it doing better than middle-of-the-table on the actual Eurovision board, so perhaps Norway did the right thing.

The Saturdays – 30 Days

This starts as it means to go on.

Tom: Never mind yesterday’s slow-to-kick-in pop: this starts as it means to go on.

Tom: Side note: am I the only one that’s surprised there aren’t any Saturdays splits or side projects yet? One of them’s got to be the Robbie, surely.

Tim: I’ll go out on a limb: yes, you are. They’ve been together for five years, and Girls Aloud went for seven years without stopping, Westlife for twelve. Even Take That held it together for six years, so even assuming there’s a rule it’s still early days.

Tom: Really? Wow. I stand corrected. Anyway, another side note: there’s no need for a music video to be letterboxed this much. It doesn’t look like a movie. It looks like the viewer’s constantly squinting.

Tim: There, I will agree.

Tom: The reason that I’m going off on side notes, by the way, is that I can’t think of anything interesting to say about the song. I’m not even sure what it’s about. It’s like someone played the Slot Machine of Pop and it churned out a random mishmash of the last few Saturdays tracks.

Tim: I got a similar feeling – more specifically, that I didn’t really care what the lyrics were, nor was I meant to care. As long as I hear the music and dance, that is enough for The Man.

Tom: It’s just… generic.

Tim: And that is enough. It seems.

Jessie J feat. David Guetta – Laserlight

It kicks in a lot later than you might think, but when it does… BOOM.

Tom: Like a lot of David Guetta tracks, it kicks in a lot later than you might think, but when it does… BOOM.

Tom: I’m having to resort to nitpicking to find things to criticisms about this track. Is that autotune I hear at 1:38, or just overcompression? I’m not sure. And that stylophone-like synth line in the builds sticks out like a sore thumb.

Tim: I quite that that bit. And as for the 1:38 bit, I think it’s just, well, singing.

Tom: Frankly, in a track this polished it’s difficult to complain about things like that. Even the twinkly piano outro works for me – it’ll be gone in the remixes, of course.

Tim: True. But if we’re nitpicking, I’m saying this: I find this hairstyle terrifying. With her usual fringe she looks friendly and nice, and the wavy thing she’s had for The Voice is also good. But all stretched back like this for some reason just scares me. I think it’s the eyebrows more than anything.

Tom: Oh, now you’ve pointed them out I can’t see anything else. Thanks for that. Anyway, if all this year’s summer anthems are of the quality we’ve seen in this last couple of weeks, Tim, it’s going to be a good year to be a clubber.

Laleh – Vårens Förster Dag

Let’s watch some kids have fun

Tim: Was there ever an internet meme called ‘Mystic Pony’, or something similar? Because the first three shots of this brought that straight to my mind and it seems a bit odd.

Tom: Charlie the Unicorn? Can’t stand it myself, but that seems the obvious connection. Or Robot Unicorn Attack, which is in the running for “best Flash game ever made”.

Tim: No, neither of them. Oh well, let’s watch some kids have fun on ‘Spring’s First Day’, as the title translates to.

Tim: Right, so once I’d got mystic ponies out of my head that rolling guitar bit came in and I suddenly got excited because it brought a wonderful sensation of ‘something brilliant will soon happen’. And bloody hell, yes it did.

Tom: I’ll agree with that: it’s a fun song, and by the time the second or third chorus rolled around I found myself tapping my foot along. It’s happy and positive and lovely, even if I don’t understand the lyrics.

Tim: Also, and I know you’re a grumpy bastard who doesn’t like kids’ choirs and stuff, but surely even you can’t deny that this video is just utterly lovely. Kids running wild in the woods, dressed up in costumes, with one playing a french horn that is at least 50% too big for him to be able to sensibly handle – it’s all wonderful.

Tom: The song’s lovely. The video… well, the singer’s nice, but the rest just left me a bit cold. But I’m willing to accept that’s a shortcoming of my own brain.

Tim: Could it end at the quiet bit around 3:30 with no-one complaining? Yes. But does the extra minute seem like it’s dragging on? No, not at all. Because this song is, like I said, LOVELY. It’s puts me in the same mindset as the video for Magic did, and that’s high praise indeed.