Tim: Lead single, out now, from Saade, Vol. 2, which comes out at the end of the month, and continues the ‘this is my sound’ dance theme that started with Vol. 1., leaving behind the pop stuff that got him started.
Tom: That starts with a bang. And they sing each other’s name! That’s a bit nicer than, say, Flo Rida just shouting out.
Tim: I like it. Did I prefer Manboy? Perhaps, but I’m getting used to this Eric Saade, and I actually don’t think it’s any bad thing at all.
Tom: I was skeptical this time, but that quiet build into the first chorus? Genius. Like it.
Tim: Good, isn’t it? He’s still got a decent hook, the lyrics are all family-friendly, there’s not a massive use of our good friend the auto-tuner, there’s a nice beat so it’ll go down well in a club, and what with the fairly well-known Dev on-board for this I think this could do rather well.
Tom: Agreed, and I rather hope it does.
Tim: He’s apparently in favour of Hearts in the Air being his first proper international single, which is a perfectly decent choice, but I reckon this ought to be be an excellent second release.
Tom: This is it, then, the first single from Westlife’s final album. Before the inevitable reunion, Greatest Hits, and new album in five years’ time. And it’s part-written by Gary Barlow, so I’m expecting great things – although after The Collective, who knows?
Tim: Ah, that’s right nice, that is.
Tom: Piano melodies that sound like Elton John. Westlife-classic harmonies. Uplifting chorus leading into a soul-stirring chord progression. Video with lots of depth of field and beautiful scenery. Middle eight to break it up. No spectacular key change here, but that’s not too much of a shame.
Tim: Not much left for me to add there, but it’s got the sort of drums in the chorus that make you what to air-drum along to them. That’s a Good Thing. And that piano really does sound like Elton John, doesn’t it? Huh.
Tom: I mean, what more do you want? This is a textbook Westlife song, and I mean that as a sincere compliment: it’s not going to be the closing number for their farewell tour, but I can see it closing the first half.
Tim: Similar in style to the first single of his we covered (recently translated into English, actually, which we should perhaps have mentioned), and I like it just as much.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1LtI0IkmsU
Tim: So similar, in fact, that the opening seems almost identical.
Tom: I quite enjoyed suddenly picking up “split-second” in the lyrics.
Tim: I have no problem with that opening, though, as the whole thing is pretty good. It’s the whole moving around, never really settling down into one type of tune or another style that’s going on that really seems to work.
Tom: That’s worked before for me – and when it finally kicked in with the big synth parts, sirens and drum beats I was really rather getting into it. But then it went all downbeat again and I just couldn’t muster the energy to keep enjoying it.
Tim: There’s a few weird things which kind of get in the way – yes, I know it’s called ‘Sirens’ so there’s a sort of sense to them, but it seems a bit unnecessary – although it’s not enough to put me off it by any means, because I’m happy with this.
Tom: I’d be happy with a calm version and a remix. The switching – this time – just doesn’t seem to suit it.
Tim: This has been out a month or so now, but it only recently turned up in our inbox. Apparently, they’re a new Swedish band, this is their debut single, and there’s more information on their Facebook page (though actually there’s barely anything). I have no idea if they’re likely to be successful, but let’s have a listen anyway.
Tom: That’s… better than I expected.
Tim: And that is why we should have have a listen. It’s really rather good, isn’t it? I do love those long vocal notes in the chorus – really give the song a big, sort of, well, bigness, really.
Tom: Erudite, there, Tim.
Tim: Thank you very much.
Tom: It is a bit downbeat, though, and I think that’ll work against it; I’m not sure I’d want to listen to it all that often.
Tim: Ah, see I think that in a way that helps – having heard this, it’s hard to imagine a happy song with this sort of vocal.
Tom: Not sure about the classical guitar backing, either – I just keep wanting it to kick up a notch and it never does.
Tim: Could an album of downbeat songs work? Probably. Let’s see what they come up with next. Oh, but please let’s have a decent ending next time.
Tom: “It’s better then Superficial,” says an anonymous Europlop reader, “different from what other artists in his category seem to be doing. He just moved to Stockholm… I hope he’ll get big in Sweden!”
Tom: The overwhelming message I got from this song? He is, indeed, takin’ it back.
Tim: It does seem that way, doesn’t it?
Tom: It’s big but not particularly lush; despite loud bass and percussion, it seems fairly simple even through the spacey middle eight.
Tim: Yeah. It’s nice, though – a short message, conveyed successfully. It doesn’t need to be big and complicated, and it certainly couldn’t have lasted much beyond the three-minute mark.
Tom: Just when you want it to come back with a massive final chorus, it… well, it doesn’t. Then, a few bars later when you expect it to… it still doesn’t. And then, when everything drops down to silence and you think this is going to be massive… it isn’t.
Tim: Let’s get the inevitable bit out of the way: you’ll say ‘we’re not doing this, it’s not a proper song’, I’ll say ‘yes it is, it got on the iTunes charts and everything’, you’ll say ‘but it’s an advert, it was only written to sell stuff’, I’ll say ‘a cynic might say that that’s all popular music is these days – just there to make money’, you’ll (rightly) point out that it really shouldn’t be that way and that music is around for people to listen to and enjoy, and I shall say ‘yes, exactly,’ and before you can say ‘wait, what?’ we’ll be listening to this and enjoying it.
Tom: No, we won’t. Because today, the part of Tom Scott is being played by Spacey, the Incoherent Badly-Informed Anti-Capitalist Protester Hand Puppet.
Tim: What?
Tom: WHAT DO WE WANT? NOW! WHEN DO WE WANT IT? NOW!
Tim: Oh, Christ.
Tom: We’ll hear more from Spacey in a moment.
Tim: Brilliant.
Tim: So, I’ll admit I have become a bit obsessed with this recently; the full-length version you see above was, in fact, one of the highlights of the first of this year’s X Factor live shows (it’s really not a great year), and I won’t deny the mere possibility of even the thirty second cut makes the myriad advert breaks somewhat bearable. It was made for that show, and it is better than that show.
Tom: SMASH THE SYSTEM! THE CORPORATE TROUGH WILL NOT FEED THESE CHICKENS ANY MORE!
Tim: No, erm, Spacey, is it? No, it won’t.
The key change is one of those that makes you think ‘I can’t believe they’re trying to get away with that’ and then creates a big smile. I’m not so keen on the heavy disjoint between the ‘A36-‘ and ‘-8’; part of me thinks it might have been better if it was pronounced sixty-eight, with the -ty coming gently underneath the big fantastic moo, but the moo does in fact make up for it.
Tom: BANKERS OUT! BANKERS OUT! DON’T ELECT THE ADVERTISING WHORES!
Tim: Okaaay. Moving on, I also love the image of them feeding milk to the cows; I’m not a farmer so I have no idea if that actually happens, but I think it’s nice. So, in fact, is the whole story in the song about happy farmers (and, indeed, happy Fresians) – it’s just a great cheerful two minutes.
Tom: WE SHALL NOT! WE SHALL NOT BE MOVED! WE SHALL NOT! WE SHALL NOT BE MOVED!
Tim: The one thing that really does annoy me a bit (aside from having to discuss this with a hand puppet) is the chorus dance thing, when they get the N (to go with Naturally) the wrong way round each time, although I suppose it is the right way round from their view, so I’ll let that pass. Finally, though, just to show we’re not actually trying to advertise the product in question, we should note that other ridiculously over the top yogurt adverts are available.
Tom: NO MORE CORPORATIONS! NO MORE… HOLD ON, SOMEONE’S JUST BBM’D ME.
Tim: Ooh. I think this is what here passes for political commentary. It’s also why we generally stick to music.
Tom: If you stick to music, so will I – but this ain’t music.
Tim: LIES. It’s beautiful, heart-warming music, and must be appreciated as such.
Tom: I missed this when it came out, which isn’t surprising since it didn’t make much of an impact on the world. But this song is rather lovely.
Tim: Ooh, it does start out nice and tinkly, doesn’t it?
Tom: In particular, it’s one bit of the chorus – that first line, with the unexpected melody line that reminds me of something but I can’t think what.
Tim: IS IT: Then I saw her face! Because the first time kind of reminds me of that.
Tom: No. Anyway – the rest of the song is pleasant too, but it’s that chorus part that made this song stand out to me in the background music of a pub the other day. And that video takes a brilliant concept and plays with it well enough to be interesting.
Tim: How they did that is fantastic. I love it.
Tom: I wonder if that studio tech’s been used for porn yet?
Tim: Eight Welsh folk, eight sheep – yeah, I can see that working.
Tom: Ah, going for the “acceptable targets” comedy there. Classic.
It’s Difficult Second Album time for the Ting Tings.
Tom: They’re a bit annoying, mostly shout rather than sing, and like banging a drum a lot. Nope, it’s not the Orange Order, it’s the Ting Tings. (That joke, incidentally, from the Never Mind The Buzzcocks reject pile.)
Also, I defy you not to think of Smells Like Teen Spirit for the first three notes of this.
Tom: It’s Difficult Second Album time for the Ting Tings, and given most people knows two songs at most off their first one – three if you count hearing ‘Great DJ’ in a dozen trailers and adverts – it’s going to be a tough sell.
Tim: Yeah… and for me, this song isn’t quite the expert salesman it may need for your average pop fan.
Tom: There’s not been much of an evolution from the first album; that’ll almost certainly be enough for their fans, but you can probably tell from the way I’m writing this that I’m not among them. Decent guitar riff, I suppose, and loud and enthusiastic enough to pass, but if I didn’t like ‘Shut Up And Let Me Go’ – and I didn’t – then this ain’t going to be for me.
Tim: Pretty much what I’d go with. Though to be honest, if their fans went out and bought their first album from their first single or two, based on this they’ll probably buy the second.
Tim: Ready for this? X Factor 2010 graduate number 4, she is, and although she finished second, to be honest I’d pretty much forgotten about her.
Tom: Bit of a strange time to release a single, given that the new series is on. But let’s see what she’s got…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LysJJVWX5j8
Tom: That’s a decent Radio 2 middle-of-the-road track, is that. Can’t see it lighting up the world in a year or so’s time, but it might just get playlisted.
Tim: Now, this annoys me. Because, man, as a contestant she was dull. I mean, bor-ing, and one I really didn’t didn’t like all that much because of it. Sure, she kept getting through, because she was a good singer – bloody brilliant singer, actually – but she was a Mariah Carey stand-there-and-look-soulful type singer, which was great for a ‘hey Grandma, I bought you a CD’, but not much for a Saturday night entertainment.
Tom: It’s not a singing contest, though; it’s a popularity contest, and stage presence counts for a lot of that.
Tim: BUT THEN, ten months passes, and now she does this, which, let’s be honest, is great. Isn’t it? And I hate that.
Tom: I have no idea why I love this, but oh my word do I love it.
Tim: Um, try big music, nice tune, emotive lyrics – any of that sound about right?
Tom: It’s a cover version of a 1984 track by The The, which a lot of folks hearing it on the radio – including me – won’t know. The original, while nice and almost a bit folky, is a bit too nice and folky for me. Accordions are an instrument that I really don’t want to make a comeback in pop. (That is an excellent early-chromakey video, though.)
Tim: Yeah – part of what I like about this is the rock-ness of it with the big guitars and drums and everything that are entirely absent from that original.
Tom: The Manics have taken the lovely melody, lyrics and sentiment and kicked it up so many notches that it’s barely even the same song any more. It’ll do me very nicely.
