“EXCITEMENT. Very important in a lyric video, that.”
Tom: I get grumpy at videos that start with photosensitive epilepsy warnings. They knew it was a problem — why didn’t they design the video to be safe from the start instead of just throwing a warning on and calling it a day?
Tim: Because EXCITEMENT. Very important in a lyric video, that.
Tom: Anyway, Kiesza is Canadian, has been going since the mid-oughts, and she’s back after two years off to recover from a car crash. And notably, this track has the same producers as Little Mix had for “Black Magic” and “Shout Out To My Ex”. Which means it should sound…
Tom: …like it came straight out of the 80s?
Tim: Hmm, yes, but also quite Shout Out To My Ex-y, there are recognisable similarities.
Tom: It’s good, don’t get me wrong! The production’s spot on, the vocals are great, the composition is… well, it’s okay, I guess, it’d maybe just scrape being a B-side for Carly Rae Jepsen. That came across as too harsh, but you know what I mean.
Tim: Yeah, I do – it’s no instant classic, though I think Jepsen B-side is way too mean – I can see this getting picked up for radio play. I’d say it’s okay.
“An experimental track doesn’t necessarily make a pleasant listen, though.”
Tom: Starting a track with distorted feedback is a brave choice in a world where people skip very, very quickly.
Tim: My first thought, immediate when I pressed play, was “oof, blimey”; that changed briefly to “oh, hmm” before going right back to blimey when that autotune kicked in properly. You’re not wrong.
Tom: In fact, I’d classify nearly all the synth pads in here as brave, particularly in the verse: the percussion that’s just a noise sample, the bass that sounds like it came from a really cheap 80s synthesiser. And the glitch samples on final chorus is… I mean, all I can think of is ‘brutal’.
Tim: Yeah – much as I’ve been a fan of Charli XCX previously, I’m struggling to find anything I like about this. The melody in the middle eight, perhaps?
Tom: But — and this is really strange for me to say — I don’t find it unpleasant at all.
Tim: Huh, okay.
Tom: It’s not like the producers are just dipping their toe into the water and giving one thing that could grate. The whole track is experimental enough (by pop music standards, at least) that I… I think I see what they were going for?
Tim: I guess, yeah, and I can agree with that – an experimental track doesn’t necessarily make a pleasant listen, though.
Tom: And if all else fails, there’s still a conventional pop vocal in there to hold on to as a lifebuoy.
Tim: Autotuned to hell and back.
Tom: It’s not going on my playlist any time soon, but I think I can see what they were going for. And I think I like it.
“It’s not being taken too seriously, no-one will mind if they go home empty handed, and pretty much everyone will have a smile on their face at the end of it.”
Tim: “Girl & boy”; dansband rock; through to Andra Chansen, knocked out by our previously-discussed Mendez. Think that’s all you need to know.
Tom: That’d not make it through the semi-finals, which is a shame, because it would make the grand final so much better.
Tim: Yep, we’re opening with a violin, we’ve an accordionist with an accordion that is very blatantly making no sound at all, we’ve guys throwing girls around like there’s no tomorrow, we’ve a key change going into the final string section and we close with a smashing of what is definitely an enormous pane of glass.
Tom: There is a lot that stands against this song: it’s not even three minutes but it feels a bit long; it’s incredibly outdated; and I couldn’t tell you what instrument or synth is making that boingy-spring sound, but I wish it wasn’t. But despite all that: I like it.
Tim: As exactly you should. I’ve said it before and I’ll probably end up saying it again: I love a song like this in a Eurovision competition. It’s not being taken too seriously, no-one will mind if they go home empty handed, and pretty much everyone will have a smile on their face at the end of it.
Tom: Right! This is the epitome of “go out there and have fun”, which — while it’s a noble goal — just isn’t what Sweden does at Eurovision.
Tim: Sure, I’d have preferred it if it’d have been Mendez with that trashy rap section that got knocked out, but we can’t have everything. At least we’ve got that key change.
Oh, and one final thing: the reason I first looked at this was that the band name rung a bell, though I couldn’t remember why. A quick search found the reason, which is the song Iskall öl & Captain Morgan, and if you don’t listen to that right now you’re really only doing yourself a disservice.
Tim: Over the years, Eric’s done brilliant songs, but also more than his fair share of awful songs, so I was a bit nervous when I pressed play on this.
Tom: It’s neither! It’s just okay, I guess!
Tim: First three notes, sing for life (and I can’t believe we’ve never featured that song), which is a happy start and the strings sound promising. Initial chorus backs that up. First verse…hmm…oh, but then the chorus comes back, it’s got more effort in it that previously and we’re right back on top.
Tom: I mean, “on top” is being a bit bold there, I think. I kept drifting into other tabs and being distracted by other things.
Tim: Second verse is fine because we know there’s better stuff coming. Given that, we’ve a 50-50 chance of the middle eight going well or not, and it turns out that…oh, it’s entirely average. Final chorus, good, entirely as expected. Taken as a whole, then, the song is basically entirely listenable, and better than I was worried it would be. You know, I’m reading that last sentence back, and it’s probably about as ‘damning with faint praise’ as it’s possible to get, isn’t it?
“If anyone else tried this, I’d probably be all ‘yeah, jog on mate, don’t get all up yourself'”
Tim: Quick recap: your phrasing last time we featured KEiiNO was “has the gimmick reached its limit?” and I pretty much agreed. They clearly think not, as they’ve teamed up with an Aboriginal Australian group, and are properly doubling down on it.
Tom: I mean, if the gimmick’s drawing attention to genres and creators that are normally ignored, I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing.
Tom: You know what? I don’t think that’s a bad song either.
Tim: And I think it works, with the significant caveat that it works as a KEiiNO track. It’s not unlike my reaction to the Boy In Space track we had the other week: if anyone else tried this, I’d probably be all ‘yeah, jog on mate, don’t get all up yourself’, but knowing what to expect from them it seems okay, maybe because I’m prepared for it. I’m thinking ‘yep, this is great so far, wonder when that weird bit’ll come along’, and being almost pleasantly surprised by ‘oh, we’ve got two types of weird bit!’
Tom: Right! And “weird bit” is exactly how most of the mainstream European pop scene will see the collaboration. It’s notable that this feels much more like a “feat.” than a true collaboration as that credit would imply: they’re keeping it mostly-mainstream. I’ll leave discussing the implications of that to better scholars than me.
Tim: I’m fairly sure they complement each other nicely, as well: the less-weird (I think?) Electric Fields bit almost serves as a warm up for Fred coming along along with the trademark. As far as the breakdown goes: hmm, it’s on the better side of its type, not being too aggressive, and again its novelty helps.
Tom: As does the fact that the mainstream parts are really bloody good.
Tim: They really are. With this, I’m right on board.
Tom: Lyric videos have on-screen director credits now. That’s not relevant to the music, I just thought I’d get that observation out the way before we get on with the music.
Tom: Remember when Kygo had just one tropical-sounding synth pad and it was either “this is another boring Kygo track” or “this doesn’t sound like Kygo, so it sucks”? Well, I think he’s finally managed to get beyond that.
Tim: Yeah – though this is still definitely a Kygo track, with pineapples and coconuts aplenty, whatever the video might imply. There’s just quite a lot else in there was well.
Tom: Granted, it’s only a slightly-different synth pad, but it’s still a step in the right direction. It still sounds like Kygo! (In fact, it sounds a lot like It Ain’t Me, despite not having any chopped-up vocals.)
Tim: It helps that he’s coming straight off his biggest track since It Ain’t Me (last July, Higher Love cam out, and still getting played regularly), so he can afford to go back to being himself.
Tom: But it shows there does seem to be an escape hatch for him, and that, I reckon, is a good thing.
“It feels like they’re aiming for a Sia track and video and not quite getting there.”
Tim: So let’s go back to Sweden, and hear this one. Spoiler alert: writing credits include Thomas G:Son (whose work we all know and adore) and Peter Borström (whose work includes Loreen’s Euphoria, Eric Saade’s Manboy & Popular, and the phemonemal We Own The Universe, which you may have forgotten so do yourself a favour and listen again).
Tom: All right, that’s a decent back catalogue, which means my expectations are going to be high.
Tim: Takes a while to get really good, but when it does it gets really, really good, doesn’t it?
Tom: …no?
Tim: Oh.
Tom: It gets okay? I’m not convinced by this. “Ballerina / dark arena” is so clunky that I think that it’d get consigned to the bottom half of the table based on that alone.
Tim: Yeah, but the rest: the choruses are good enough, mind, and in a lot of songs I’d be happy enough if that was the level of the best part. But here, oh, we’re just getting started, and that closing chorus truly is a special moment – though that might just be because it’s a relief to be out of the creepy looking middle eight.
Tom: I’m fairly sure that middle-eight vocoder wouldn’t be allowed in the actual Contest — and I’m not convinced by those staccato hand movements, either. It feels like they’re aiming for a Sia track and video and not quite getting there.
Tim: Hmmmmm…maybe, though I’d say that’s a tad harsh. I get what’s meant to be ballet-style dancing, though it comes across as ballet on speed. And I’m really not sure those outfits work, bringing to mind more Maria von Trapp than anything fancy.
Still, top notch song, with an appalling injustice in it not getting to the final – more votes than its opponent, but knocked out due to demographic weighting. Disgraceful.
“The PR guff says it ‘has a very boss ass bitch vibe’, and I don’t know where to start in listing the things that are wrong with it.”
Tim: We’ve more or less agreed on every track this week, which I think is not that common an occurrence. So as to not ruin it, then, here’s a song we will both find entirely appalling.
Tom: You had to break the streak, didn’t you?
Tim: Well, at least we’ll agree.
Tim: I want to think this is a parody of some sort, but nope, she’s an established with several tracks already out there; this is an entirely genuine track.
Tom: Maybe, but with around 500 subscribers on YouTube and less than a thousand views on it, I’m not sure it’s fair to hate on a small indie arti– huh. This is in Content ID. It’s got a record label attached to it. Like, a reasonably-sized Swedish record label. I figured this was either an overconfident small act or a Rebecca Black situation, but, uh, no, this has been Properly Signed Off.
Tim: Indeed it has – the PR guff says it’s “a euphoric party song about being freaky and fun” and “has a very boss ass bitch vibe”, and I don’t know where to start in listing the things that are wrong with it.
Tom: But let me guess: you’ve going to?
Tim: Absolutely. We’ve the ridiculous artwork. The purple tinge throughout so much of the video. The rest of the video – why is there an intermittent Iron Man style HUD? Since when did Bugattis fly into space?
Tom: Which, again, is not unreasonable for a small artist! If this was someone just messing about on YouTube it would be rude to do this!
Tim: It would, but it isn’t! We’ve also got the unnecessary expletives. The vocal distortion that makes it hard to make out the lyrics. The occasional lyrics that are audible rhyming “talking” with “balling” and talking about spilling Bacardi.
Tom: Also, Bugatti doesn’t have a long A in it, and somehow she’s managing not to voice the ‘g’, which is a difficult trick to do when you’re singing.
Tim: It’s just…god, awful. The only good thing about it is that it ends.
Tom: Weirdly, I don’t have a visceral dislike-reaction to this, which I’ve had in the past: it’s more of a tired “oh, for crying out loud”.
Tim: So, Alan’s got a new one out, and OH BOY. Part of me is tempted to go for (and would be justified going for) a lengthy history of Alan’s logo worshipping cult thing he has going on, but I won’t, partly because we’re (in theory) just here for the track, and also because I could easily get a 2,000 word piece out of it and this really isn’t the place. Quick recap, then: his first trilogy of videos had various post-apocalypse groups of people worshipping his logo; we got into the details here and here, and he actually posted an explanatory video (which is actually quite interesting with some behind the scenes stuff as well).
Tom: How much must all this cost? Is it worth it? I’d love to know whether his fans are viewing these as just “music videos” or whether a lot of folks are treating it like new releases in the MCU.
Tim: Yeah, it’d be interesting. I checked the comments to get an idea, but they’re all linking a song called Heading Home with the coronavirus lockdowns, and I can’t BELIEVE I missed that opportunity.
This new trilogy he’s got have started with On My Way and continued with Alone, Pt II. If you’ve got time (and let’s face it, who doesn’t right now), you might want to spend 7 minutes or so catching up, but basically: a student’s found historical clues based around, yep, his logo, and they’ve all led up to archeological discoveries, and now she’s going just a little bit further…
Tom: …and ending the world, apparently.
Tim: I dunno, let’s not be too quick to point fingers. First note, though: D.H. Lawrence did actually compile a book called The Symbolic Meaning, so props to them there for not just making something up; on the other hand, it’s not actually about the meanings of symbols, so she’d have been better off consulting The Da Vinci Code, but LET’S MOVE ON. We’re closing the story with another cult worshipping that logo, almost mirroring the beginning of his first trilogy, preparing for an apocalyptic event by burying a Walker-embedded time capsule. To be honest, it’s almost a disappointment – not because I was expecting anything sane, but because the first two were at least grounded in the real world (obviously still bonkers, but realistically so) and then this one takes it vaguely supernatural, kind of breaking the story. Ah, well.
Tom: See, I’ve always come at this from the approach of “well, it’s just a music video, and it’s not like it’s related to the track”. This could happily sit in a background tab for me.
Tim: Oh, absolutely, and the vast majority of the time when people hear this it’ll be via a speaker, not through the video.
Tom: I wonder if there are songs where that’s not the case. Gangnam Style? Any of OK Go’s videos? I don’t know if it’s possible to track that, but it’d be interesting.
Tim: Maybe Never Gonna Give You Up, although admittedly no-one actually chooses to watches that. Thing is, though, and despite what I said earlier, I’m not sure there’s much point in us discussing the music, as there’s not much to say beyond: it is an inoffensive and entirely decent Alan Walker track. Despite what it says in the description about him having worked on this since Faded and it being a very special song, I’m almost certain he’s more interested in the videos than he is in the tracks.
Tom: Right! And there’s nothing wrong with that, OK Go have based a career on it, but at that point I’m wondering: do you even count yourself as a musical artist? Or are you a filmmaker who scores the stuff you’re producing?
Tim: Exactly, and he’s certainly getting into full filmmaker levels, as it’s not just the over the top storylines: that behind the scenes video I linked to earlier shows a hell of effort (and money) goes into the videos, with filming in five different countries and physical versions of those drones and ‘prophecy discs’ being made. That’s not entirely a criticism, mind – I was saying only yesterday how I wished songs could come with narratives, and these certainly fit the bill – though it does make me wonder if five years from now he’ll have been hired by Marvel to write a new Fantastic Four movie.
Tom: Can’t be worse than any of the previous ones.
Tim: You know, I was about to leap in with a vague defence of the 2005 one, but then I remembered the 2015 abomination, and oh god yes.
Anyway, final thought (I promise): I was at an Alan Walker gig not too long ago and naturally he had those face masks available at the merch stand; I didn’t buy one, because they were fifteen quid, but it’s just struck me they might have been quite useful right about now.
“Hey, it’s Mia – sorry, how long exactly did we say that final ‘nicht’ should sound?”
Tim: Germany has some very strict lockdown rules in place right now which means that, while feats. with separate ‘you sing one bit, I’ll sing another’ will probably be okay, proper duets, with both acts singing at the same time, might suffer a little. For example.
Tim: It’s so close. So, so close. Many bits are perfect, in fact – typically, the start of each line, they’re all in on time. But agh, the sibilants, and the drawn out words. “Hey, it’s Mia – sorry, how long exactly did we say that final ‘nicht’ should sound?”
Tom: Every part of the broadcast and entertainment industry is having to deal with lockdown rules in their own way: this is, at least, more competent than all the American late-night hosts trying to record shows on their phone with no lapel mic.
Tim: That’s very true, and to be honest even the small amount of negativity introduced by this is pretty much cancelled out by this actually being a pretty good song in many ways – there’s a good melody (especially with the unexpected key change), and the production’s surprisingly good given that half of it was recorded in Dorfrocker’s bedroom and the other in SchoKKverliebt’s living room.
Tom: Right! And the audience will forgive a lot for something like this. Even the dodgy stock footage.
Tim: I can’t find the lyrics online, but it’s a nice message as well, a song of thanks to all the ‘Silent Helpers’ keeping the country running right now. All in, turned out nice. I guess you work with what you’ve got (or, hopefully, haven’t).
